Saturday 17 March 2012

Launch of Mission on Food Processing, Budget’s big bonanza to food sector

Saturday, March 17, 2012 08:00 IST 
Irum Khan, Mumbai
When finance minister Pranab Mukherjee opened his bundle of financial offerings to the nation it was almost certain that not any major news was likely to come by or a 360-degree turnaround was possible, given the twin ghosts of inflation and global economic crisis still haunting the government. 

The Union Budget 2012-13 ratified the guess. 

A GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth of 7.6% in 2012-13 and 8.6% in 2013-14 has been anticipated. How much of it would be achieved would be known only a year later.

Though, the Budget did bring in some new schemes for the food industry accompanied by a slew of incentives. 

The National Mission on Food Processing is one promising scheme proposed in the Budget to be started in 2012-13. This scheme is proposed to take care of the huge wastage in the country by effectively leading raw materials to the processing plants. The government will have to ensure that the design of the implementation plan is cogent and transparent.

“The food processing sector has been growing at an average rate of over 8 per cent over the past 5 years. In order to have a better outreach and to provide more flexibility to suit local needs, it has been decided that a new centrally-sponsored scheme titled “National Mission on Food Processing” would be started,” said the FM. 

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