MGNREGA scheme to get Rs 60,000 crore this fiscal

Early last week, the government unveiled a new agriculture export policy, which aims to double agri exports by 2022 by boosting infrastructure and removing export restrictions on a variety of commodities. The total outlay for the implementation of the policy would be Rs 1,400 crore, which is already available under different schemes. The policy seeks to diversify the country’s export basket and destinations, by boosting high value and value-added agricultural exports, including perishables.

Last week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the MGNREGA scheme would get Rs 60,000 crore during the current fiscal, Rs 5,000 crore more than the budgeted amount. He also said that Rs 1.6 lakh crore has been set aside for food subsidy alongside cost, plus a 50% increase in minimum support price on several agricultural products. He stated that the investment in rural roads had increased three-fold during the previous 4.5 years and close to 1.9 lakh km of rural roads have been built.

The Rising Rural Demand smallcase has companies that derive a significant amount of their revenue from rural India or are rapidly increasing their presence in rural areas.

Markets update

Benchmark indices ended lower this week with Nifty closing down 1.68% at 10,693.7 and Sensex closing down 1.44% at 35,673.3. As was expected, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday kept the key repo rate unchanged at 6.50%.

Nikkei Manufacturing PMI for November 2018 came in at 54.0 above analyst expectations, indicating fastening pace of expansion of factory output. Nikkei Services PMI for the same period also increased to 53.7, pointing to strong expansion in the services sector activity.