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(The Gist of Kurukshetra) Rural Resurgence through Trade, Tourism and Technology [APRIL-2020]

(The Gist of Kurukshetra) Rural Resurgence through Trade, Tourism and Technology

The three Ts, viz. Trade, Tourism and Technology, play a meaningful role in boosting rural economic growth. Budget 2020-21 has an emphatic stress on these three Ts, both directly and indirectly.

A critical ingredient in ensuring robust trade is to successfully ensure smooth connectivity between the area supplying the product and the area demanding it. For this purpose, the Budget has announced the launch of Krishi Udaan.
As per Ministry of Commerce and Industry, agricultural products account for 12% of India’s total exports.
Budget has proposed the setting up of a Kisan Rail through PPP. It also announced One Produce One District, i.e. adoption of a product each by a district. It will lead to an encouragement to specialization of particular areas in exporting particular products.
The intent of the budget to involve youth in fishery extension through 3,477 Sagar Mitras and 500 Fish Farmer Producer Organisations is a step towards augmenting fishery exports.
The budget has announced the launching of NIRVIK and the Scheme for Reversion of Duties and Taxes.
The former will provide higher insurance coverage, reduction in premium for small exporters and simplified procedure for claim settlements, while the later will digitally refund to exporters, duties and taxes levied at the Central, State and local levels, such as electricity duties and VAT on fuel used for transportation, which are not exempted or refund under any other existing mechanism.

Statistics released by Ministry of Tourism show that the number of foreign tourists visiting India have grown to 1,05,57,929 in 2018.
In Budget 2020-21, it is proposed to establish an Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation which will have a status of Deemed University.
Five archaeological sites, viz. Rakhigarhi in Haryana, Hastinapur in Uttar Pradesh, Shivsagar in Assam, Dholavira in Gujarat and Adichanallur in Tamil Nadu have been identified as iconic sites with onsite museums.
The Budget has announced a museum on Numismatics and Trade and four more museums that will be taken up for renovation and re-curation, besides, support the setting up of a Tribal Museum in Ranchi.
An innovative proposal is to set up a maritime museum in Lothal, the Harappan age maritime site near Ahmedabad, by Ministry of Shipping.
As per the Budget a National Logistics Policy will be announced. The policy will create a single window e-logistics market and focus on employment, skills and make MSME competitive.
The Budget has announced augmenting connectivity through accelerated development of highways, including 2500 km access control highways; 9000 km of economic corridors; 2000 km of coastal and land port roads; and 2000 km of strategic highways.

The Budget’s vision is to provide digital connectivity to all public institutions at Gram Panchayat level such as Anganwadis, health and wellness centres etc.
The target is to achieve Fibre-to-the-Home connections through BharatNet. It also seeks to improve efficiency of sea ports by using technology.
The Budget also mentions about creating a digital platform which would facilitate seamless application and capture of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR); establishing a Centre in an Institute of Excellence to work on the complexity and innovation in the field of IPRs; setting up of Knowledge Translation Clusters across different technology sectors; scaling up Technology Clusters; and mapping India’s genetic landscape through national level science schemes.
A pragmatic approach towards using technology in providing quality education has been adopted by the budget. The budget proposes to start online degree level full-fledged education programmes by institutions which are ranked within top 100 in the National Institution Ranking Framework.

The three Ts entail development within the global, and not merely local, framework. For enhancement of the three Ts, viz. trade, tourism and technology, the budget has advocated the three As, viz. affordability, availability and accessibility.