Prime Minister’s call for solutions to agri infrastructure!
Information is an agri input!
Prime Minister was launching the ‘Start-up India’ campaign and he turned to agriculture sector in that context. That seems to be not a coincidence, we believe.
The Prime Minister wondered whether our young entrepreneurs, technologists can come up with solutions to the agri sector, agri infrastructure. In this context referred to the perishable farm produce, fruits and vegetables. He asked: can’t there be IT solutions to save agri wastage.
In this context, we, in Vadamalai Media, engaged in the IT related sectors, more so related to the very agriculture both as media as well as IT applications to reach out to the farmers and farm entrepreneurs, like to say PM’s specific issues can be addressed.
Vadamalai Media, for one, is working on this very front and we have created some new initiatives and innovations. Our agri website, www.agricultureinformation.com is perhaps the world’s largest agri portal that has a few lakhs of registered members who seek information 24/7 and we have gone way. One more innovation is e-commerce in agri products and services. These are all in-house work so far and now with the PM’s push for a new Start-up revolution things must become more easier to seek VC funding and other incentives to accelerate faster to find new solutions to new issues. In fact, our slogan is ‘Information is an agri input!’.
Taking the cue perhaps from the PM’s thoughts the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced in his second year budget new allocations to accelerate the stuttering below 2 per cent growth in the agri sector. According to the Mid-Year review of our economy, there is something like 30 percent of wastage in agri produce, for lack of warehouse, cold storage, transportation and other infrastructure facilities.
In our considered view there is also a critical input missing in all our thinking of agriculture policy.
It is the lack of information, in this Internet times, and in spite of the spread of the smart phones spreading like wildfire.
The very thoughts we have about the IT industry is that it is first of all urban-centric and also more focused on American market and there is not much scope for India focused and more so when it comes to agriculture only darkness prevails.
This we had tackled single-handedly and we are glad that the time has come now when the Prime Minister’s campaign for the Start-up India would only further accelerate the progress of our agri sector.
We like to say. Just put the Start-up Campaign at once on the official website. So that first let us get the inputs.
Also, let us invite those engaged already and those who want to enter his field can straightaway enter the sector.
Those who are eligible apply for assistance.
And others requiring other types of helps, tax incentives, subsidies and other clearances.
The important next is implementation.Invite some high profile technocrat, say, like Mr.Nandan Nilekani or some other who is enthusiastic about the Campaign to head this Campaign and start the implementation process.
It is really wonderful for the Prime Minister to say, looking at the overwhelming crowd; the Vigyan Bhavan was over-flowing with young talent: ‘tell us what should not be doing!’.Yes, less interference is the key to success here. No bureaucratic hurdles any more.
That way we can rise up in the Ease of Doing Business Index where India is notoriously still behind other lesser developed countries.