In the third tranche of Rs 20 lakh-crore package announced by the Prime Minister, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday came up with an 11-point plan for farmers’ welfare, fisheries and food processing.

The third tranche of measures being announced today focuses on agriculture and allied activities, including fisheries, said the Finance Minister.

The government announced Rs 1 lakh crore for aggregators and startups in agriculture sector, including warehouse and cold chains. The benefit will also go to farmers’ cooperatives.

The government also announced Rs 10,000 crore for cluster-based manufacturing for nutritional products in which 2 lakh MFI will benefit, for example, Kashmir can have ‘Kesar’ and Bihar can have ‘Makhana’ clusters.

“India is the largest milk producer, largest jute and pulses producer, second largest in sugarcane, cotton, groundnut, fruits, vegetables and fisheries and third in cereals. Indian farmer has really endured and made sure that he would give us the highest yield, said Sitharaman.

The Finance Minister said it goes to the credit of the Indian farmer who has always stood up to various challenges and has made India reach certain global benchmarks.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced collateral free automatic loans for businesses including MSMEs up to Rs 3 lakh crore.

Under the measure, borrowers with up to Rs 25 crore outstanding and Rs 100 crore turnover would be eligible for the special collateral free loan.

The loan will have a 4 year tenor with moratorium of 12 months on principal repayment and the interest will be capped.

There will be a 100 per cent credit guarantee cover to banks and NBFCs on principal and interest. The initiative can be availed till October 31, 2020, and no guarantee fee and fresh collateral would be required.

On the back of the scheme, 45 lakh units can resume business activity and safeguard jobs.

The move is part of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening.

It is one among the schemes announced by the Finance Minister on Wednesday.

The planned merger of the 10 Public Sector Banks (PSBs) into four entities is slated to result in lower non-performing assets, larger balance sheets, high risk appetite, more customers and global reach.

Accordingly, the latest announcement comes after a similar exercise was conducted with the State Bank of India when it was merged with 5 other banks.

Just a year back, the government had amalgamated the Bank of Baroda with two other banks which resulted in a strong result in strong retail loan growth, robust CASA (current account savings account) and bigger profits.

The government’s logic, merge weak state-owned banks with large ones, is aimed at shoring up balance sheets and get the entire entity out of the Reserve Bank’s Prompt Corrective Action guidelines.

By carrying out the second wave of banking reform, the government wants to scale up their lending ability, a key to India becoming $5 trillion economy by 2024-25. Experts have said that credit offtake has to grow by 18-20 per cent annually against about 12 per cent now to achieve the target.

“For an economy that is aiming to reach the $5 trillion mark, we need a very strong and stable banking sector that can efficiently meet the credit requirements,” FICCI President Sandip Somany said.

Srikanth Vadlamani, Vice President, Financial Institutions Group, Moody’s Investors Service termed the government move on PSBs incremental rather than structural, adding the quality of their implementation will determine the effectiveness.

In case of merger between the Oriental Bank of Commerce and the United Bank of India with the Punjab National Bank, the government expects the new entity to have a total business of Rs 17,94,526 crore, whereas the PNB on standalone basis had only Rs 11,82,224 crore.

The new entity will have total branches of 11,437 and a net NPA ratio of 6.61 per cent compared with PNB’s 6,992 branches and 6.55 per cent.

When Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited the India-China border on Saturday, she did not just review security there but also taught Chinese soldiers how to greet with a ‘namaste’.

The video clipping of the visit shows a Chinese soldier introducing one of them to the Minister, after which Sitharaman gave the traditional salutation of “namaste”.

“You know what namaste is?” Sitharman is seen asking a Chinese soldier who is speaking in English.

While some on the Indian side tried to explain what namaste was, Sitharaman asked them to let the Chinese soldier tell what he thought it meant. “He knows; let him say,” said Sitharaman.

“Does that mean nice to meet you,” the Chinese soldier asked. At this, she asked: “What would you say in Chinese”.

As he responded: “We just say ‘ni hao'”, she said: “So, I say namaste.”

The Chinese soldiers replied saying ‘ni hao’ with folded hands.

The Chinese soldier who was translating then explained his name meant ‘king’ in English, at which Sitharaman quipped: “And to have a king do the translation…”

Amid laughter from both sides, the soldier explained his English was good.

Sitharaman was at the Nathu La pass on Saturday when she met the Chinese soldier.

The Defence Minister was on a tour to Sikkim after India-China stand-off and was also supposed to visit the stand-off area but could not due to bad weather.

On Sunday, Sitharaman visited Tezpur as part of her maiden visit to the Eastern Command as Defence Minister.

Accompanied by Army Vice Chief Lt Gen Sarath Chand and Eastern Command chief Lt Gen Abhay Krishna, she was received at the Tezpur Airforce Station by Gajraj Corps commander Lt Gen A.S. Bedi and other senior dignitaries of the Army and the Indian Air Force.

The visit, which is part of her familiarisation with all the formations of the Indian Army and the IAF, comes close on the heels of her visit to Northern Command recently and her visit to Sikkim on Saturday.

An official statement said the Minister extended her good wishes to the Air Warriors on the occasion of 85th Air Force Day as she interacted with them at the strategically important Tezpur airbase and reviewed its operational readiness, while seeing the Sukhoi fighter aircraft and other IAF assets first-hand.

Sitharaman also visited the Gajraj Corps headquarters where she was briefed by Lt Gen Bedi on the overall security situation in Assam and the Kameng Sector of Arunachal Pradesh and the operational preparedness of the Corps.

She subsequently visited Solmara Military Station, Tezpur where she interacted with the officers and jawans over a cup of tea and appreciated their high standards of military discipline and preparedness.

The Minister also extended her greetings to the troops for Diwali before her departure for Delhi.