(THE GIST OF PIB) Paat Mitro

(DECEMBER-2023)

The Ministry of Textiles recently launched the “Paat-Mitro” mobile application to provide important information about MSP and agronomy to jute farmers.

It is a mobile application developed by the Jute Corporation of India Limited (JCI).
Purpose: To provide important information about Minimum Support Prices (MSP) and agronomy to jute farmers.

It is available in six languages.
All the functionalities are made available to the users free of cost.
In addition to the latest agronomic practices and MSP, Jute Gradation Parameters, Farmer-centric schemes like ‘Jute-ICARE’, weather forecasts, JCI’s Purchase Centres’ locations, and Procurement Policies are also made available in the app.
Farmers will also be able to track the status of their payments for the raw jute sold to JCI under MSP Operation.
Latest technology features like Chatbot are included for their queries.

It was set up in 1971 as an official agency by the Government of India with the aim to provide minimum support price (MSP) to jute cultivators.
It is the implementing agency of various projects of the Government of India for the enhancement and betterment of the Jute crop and the lives of Jute growers.
It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles.
It spread in 7 states which are eminent for jute growing in India, including West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh.
It has been provided with an authorised and paid-up capital of Rs. 5 crore.
As per the policy decision of the Government, JCI is obliged to buy whatever quantity of jute is offered at support rates by the growers without any quantitative limit.
The losses incurred by the JCI while implementing policy are to be reimbursed by the Government of India.