30% Scheme Funds being Allocated for Development of Women Farmers: Shri Pawar Consultative Committee on Agriculture meets

Press Information Bureau: Nov 01, 2012Union Minister of Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Shri Sharad Pawar today informed Members of Parliament that “in order to ensure that funds get adequately devolved for women specific needs, 30% funds are being allocated for development of women farmers under various schemes/programmes with a focus on formation of Women Self Help Groups.”

Speaking at the Meeting of the Consultative Committee on “Women in Agriculture”, he expressed that rural women play a pivotal role in the entire gamut of agricultural operations ranging from land preparation to post-harvesting operations. He said, “Their access to productive assets like seed, water, credit, subsidy needs to be enhanced. Women are often not recognized as farmers for want of ownership of land and are not considered as beneficiaries under various government programmes / services. Due to wage differentials between men and women in some parts of the country, the situation gets further aggravated.”

He elaborated on the steps taken by the Ministry of Agriculture to improve the lot of women farmers and said, “Currently, there are number of schemes being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, wherein there is a provision for women-specific activities. These include Gramin Bhandaran Yojana, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, ATMA Scheme, National Food Security Mission National Horticulture Mission etc.”

Shri Pawar stated that various Ministries in the Government have been working towards empowering women farmers and efforts are being to bring about convergence and synergy. Developing gender disaggregated data and gender budgeting are other key activities which have been taken up to bridge gender inequalities.

The meeting was attended by Ministers of State for Agriculture and FPI, Shri Charan Das Mahant and Shri Tariq Anwar and other members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The members who attended the meeting were: S/Shri A.Ganeshamurthi, Sharief-ud-din Sharif, Dhruva Narayana Rangaswamy, M. Krishnaswamy, K. Sugumar, K.P. Dhanapalan, Gobinda Chandra Naskar, Sardar Sher Singh Ghubaya, Kunvarjibhai Bavalia, Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, Dr. K.P. Ramalingam, Smt. Mohsina Kidwai, Renubala Pradhan and special invitee Smt. Santosh Chowdhary.

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Visa on Arrival Scheme Registers A Growth of 25 Percent

Press Information Bureau: Dec 13, 2012The “Visa on Arrival” (VoA) Scheme of the government has become popular with the tourists. The scheme registered a growth of 25% during the period January-November 2012 over the corresponding period of 2011. A total number of 13,903 VoAs were issued during the period January-November 2012 as compared to 11,121 VoAs issued during the corresponding period of 2011. The highest number of 3913 VoAs were issued to the tourists from Japan followed by New Zealand ( 2645) and The Philippines ( 2205).

The following are the important highlights of VoAs issued during November, 2012.

During the month of November 2012, a total number of 1,630 VoAs were issued under this Scheme as compared to 1,382 VoAs during the month of November 2011, registering a growth of 17.9%. The number of VoAs issued under this scheme during November 2012 for nationals of the eleven countries were Japan (435), New Zealand (299), the Philippines (257), Indonesia (229), Singapore (207), Finland (86), Cambodia (70), Luxembourg (23), Myanmar (13), Vietnam (10) and Laos (1). The number of VoAs issued under this scheme during January-November 2012 were Japan (3,913), New Zealand (2,645), the Philippines (2,205), Indonesia (2,116), Singapore (1,718), Finland (810), Vietnam (152), Cambodia (144), Luxembourg (101), Myanmar (89) and Laos (10). During the period January-November 2012, the highest number of VoAs were issued at Delhi airport (8,285), followed by Mumbai (2,827), Chennai (1,950) and Kolkata (841). As a facilitative measure to attract more foreign tourists to India, the Government launched the “Visa on Arrival” (VoA) Scheme in January 2010 for citizens of five countries, viz. Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore, visiting India for tourism purposes. The Government extended this Scheme to the citizens of six more countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos and Myanmar in January 2011.

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