PM-PRANAM

• 50% subsidy savings will be passed on as a grant to the state that saves
the money

• 70% of the grant provided under the scheme can be used for asset
creation related to technological adoption of alternate fertilisers and
alternate fertiliser production units at village, block and district levels.
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• The remaining 30% grant money can be used 5@
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panchayats, farmer producer organisations y b ha and self-help groups that are
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involved in the reduction of fertiliser
for
use and awareness generation.
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• Government will compare a state’s increase or reduction in urea in a

year, to its average consumption of urea during the last three years. Data
available on a fertiliser Ministry dashboard, iFMS (Integrated fertilisers
Management System), will be used for this purpose.
 Storage Plan at PACS
• Based on the FAO Statistical Data 2021, total Food Grain
Production in India is 311 MMT and total Storage Capacity in
India is only 145 MMT, i.e, there is a shortage of 166 MMT od
Storage.

• Firstly, it addresses the lack of agricultural storage infrastructure

by establishing godowns at the PACS level. il.com
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• Additionally, it empowers PACSly foto
r ip engage in other roles:
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– Acting as procurement centres for State Agencies/ Food Corporation of
India (FCI).
– Functioning as Fair Price Shops (FPS).
– Establishing custom hiring centres.
– Creating common processing units for sorting, grading, and more.
 Price Stabilisation Fund
• Objectives-
– To promote direct purchase from farmers
/farmers’ association at farm gate/Mandi.
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– To maintain a strategic bufferv15stock @
gm that would
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discourage hoarding andiprinunscrupulous
cy b ha

for
speculation. On
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– To protect consumers by supplying such

commodities at reasonable prices through
calibrated release of stock
• It has been decided to create a corpus of Rs. 500 cr. for providing
interest free advance towards working capital to eligible
proposals from State Government/Union Territories (UTs) and
Central Agencies/Central PSUs/Cooperative organizations as
decided by respective Ministries, to enable procurement of
perishable agri-horticulture produce.

• Under the Price Stabilisation Fund scheme, interest free advances

are provided to States/UTs for creation of State-level Price
Stabilisation Fund, on 50:50 sharing basis (75:25 ail.c
om in case of NE
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States). So far six States, viz., Andhra Pradesh, v1
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Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal y b ha
rg have drawn the advance

and a total of Rs.164.15 crore has p inc

rbeen released as Central share.
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• When retail prices of notified agri-horticultural commodities are

anticipated to increase substantially, then their procurement
could be undertaken from farm gate/mandi or through import, as
decided by PSFMC to reduce the cost of intermediation and made
available at a cheaper price to the consumers.
 Operation Greens
• Ministry of Food Processing Industries launched
Operation Greens scheme in November, 2018 for
integrated development of Tomato, Onion and
Potato (TOP) value chain with the objectives to
– enhance value realization of TOP farmers;
– reduction in post-harvest losses; ail.com
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– price stabilization for producer r g a
and
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– increase in food processing ipr
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addition etc. O n ly f
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• As per budget Announcement 2021-22, expanded

operation greens scheme covers 22 perishables
including shrimp.(TOP to TOTAL)
• Long Term Interventions

– Enhancing value realisation of farmers by targeted interventions

to strengthen production clusters and FPOs, and linking/
connecting the farmers with the market.

– Reduction in post-harvest losses by creation of farm gate

infrastructure, development of suitable agri-logistics, creation
of appropriate storage capacity linking consumption centres.
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– Increase in food processing capacities a v1and value addition in
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value chain by creating firm linkages cy b ha with identified production
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clusters. yf
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• Short Term Interventions

– The objective of the Scheme is to protect the growers of Eligible
Crops from making distress sale and to reduce post-harvest
losses.
• The scheme provides for short term intervention by
way of providing transportation and storage subsidy
@ 50% and

• Long term intervention through value addition

projects in identified production clusters with
Grant-in-aid @ 35% to 70% of eligibleil.coproject
m cost
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subject to maximum of Rs. 50 crorev1
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• Under the scheme, state-wise funds are not allocated
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as the scheme is demand driven and projects are

approved as per scheme guidelines on the basis of
applications received for setting up of projects in
eligible production clusters.
 om
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• A focus on the entire ecosystem, not merely on
one fabrication unit.
• The programme envisages building the entire
semiconductor ecosystem—from design to
manufacturing to assembly and
packaging—instead of just focusing on one
semiconductor fabrication to start operations in
India. il.c
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• The Rs 76,000 crore package
r ip
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– 100 domestic semiconductor design companies,
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– 15 compound semiconductors and semiconductor

packaging units,
– two fabrication units, and
– two display fabs.
• A 20-year roadmap, not merely a one-off incentive
scheme
– The package includes creating an independent India
Semiconductor Mission (ISM) of global experts to “drive
the long-term strategies for developing sustainable
semiconductors and display ecosystem”.

• A shot in the arm for domestic semiconductor om

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design firms 1 5 @
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– Though India is a semiconductor ha
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design powerhouse,
few Indian companies own o r iprthese designs’ intellectual
in
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property (IP). In this regard,
On an emphasis on
semiconductor design through the new Design Linked
Incentive (DLI) scheme for semiconductor design firms is
a positive step. The DLI scheme provides financial
incentives to help domestic design firms obtain costly
software licenses (also known as Electronic Design
Automation tools) and reduce IP acquisition costs.
• A clear target of two semiconductor fabs and
two display fabs
– Fabrication units require billions of dollars of
recurring capital investment. World over,
governments have played a role in sharing this
investment burden. The programme mentions fiscal
support of up to 50 per cent of the total project
cost. In the past, the government had committed to
an incentive of 25 per cent on capital
il.c
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– Besides fiscal support, this rin
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ha also requires
p
high-grade power and On
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or
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supply, subjects that
fall under the remit of state governments. Another
positive step is the commitment to work with a few
state governments to create suitable infrastructure
(land, uninterrupted water and power).
• Incentives for the assembly, test, and
packaging stage
– The outsourced assembly and test (OSAT)
segment in the semiconductor supply chain is a
significant opportunity for a labour-abundant
country like India. These units areomnot as capital
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ail.
intensive to set up or run as vfabrication 15
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facilities. Government support p r inc
yb
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i
for
financial support ofOn30 per cent of the total
l y

capital expenditure can attract major OSAT

semiconductor companies to the country.
• Need For DLI-
– The scheme acknowledges that semiconductor
design is India’s comparative advantage. It says
that:
• Nearly 20% of the world’s design engineers are in India
• India has a thriving semiconductor design ecosystem.
– The problems identified under the scheme are:
• Not a lot of Intellectual Property (IP) belongs to Indian
companies. This is problematic as countries om are known to
il.c
put strict export controls in this domain. @
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foreign company X has a design a rga house in India, the
v1
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country where X is headquartered in cyb can forbid an Indian
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customer from using the n ly f products made by X in India.
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• The cumulative revenue of domestic semiconductor
design companies is really really small, less than ₹150
crores.
• no specific incentive for semiconductor design firms
earlier.
• For companies willing to invest a minimum of Rs 20,000 crores
in a logic/memory/analog/Mixed-signal fab at <=65nm in India,
the union government is committing fiscal support of up to:
– 50 per cent of project cost for 28nm or lower
– 40 per cent of project cost for 28nm to 45nm
– 30 per cent of project cost for 45nm to 65nm
• Applications are open for 45 days initially starting 1 Jan 2022.
Support will be extended to at least two applicants for six
years.
• Disbursement from the union government will o m
match the
c
capital investments by investors at a predefined g m ail. ratio, not
exceeding 50 per cent. r g a v1
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• Selection of applicants will be onprinQuality
cy b and Cost Based
i
Criteria (QCBS), not L1. Evaluation
n ly f
o r
will be done by the newly
O
proposed India Semiconductor Mission. Composed of industry
experts, this body is tasked with “driving the long-term
strategies for developing sustainable semiconductors and
display ecosystem”.
• Scheme for setting up of Compound
Semiconductors, Silicon Photonics, Sensors Fab
and Semiconductor Assembly, Testing,
Marking and Packaging (ATMP), OSAT facilities
in India

– The scheme provides incentives foril.cbroadly om two

unrelated things. One, for specialised 1 5 @
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fabs used to
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manufacture high frequency, yb
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optoelectronic devices.for ip r i
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– Two, for units that do Assembly, Test, Marking, and

Packaging (ATMP) of conventional silicon
semiconductor chips.
• Specialised Fabs included under this policy relate to:
– compound semiconductors: The use of compound semiconductors is
expected to grow for high voltage applications, LED-powered appliances etc.
• For instance, the use of GaN for chargers is beneficial as it can operate at higher
voltages without conduction losses. These products also switch more efficiently, and
hence low switching losses. The overall effect is that devices such as power chargers
can be made much smaller using compound semiconductors because the heat to be
dissipated is much lower. For more, read this by STMicro.
• GaAs is used for Surface-mounted Device LEDs used in our bulbs. Silicon
semiconductors emit energy in the infrared range and hence are not suitable for
such applications.

– SiPho Fab. Silicon Photonics allows for higher interconnect speeds,

supporting higher data rates. A lot of energy in information om processing
il.c
apparently is used up in the communications — not gm logic — over a chip
a
because conventional interconnects need toavbe @
15 discharged and charged for
g
data transfer. Optical communication offers b ha hope here. For more, see this
r
cy
article in Physics World The promiseipof
rin silicon photonics – Physics World
for
O nly
– MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems): expected to find more
applications in healthcare, EVs.
• ATMP units: OSAT (Outsourced
Semiconductor Assembly and Test) is a
stage of the conventional semiconductor
production process.

– This is where India has a potentialomadvantage

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because of the need for a large, @
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trained workforce for this cyb
h astage,
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in comparison
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to logic or memory fabs.
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This stage does require
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high-end equipment but the recurring capital
investment required is lesser than silicon logic
or memory fabs. Of course, cost margins are
also lower.
• Scheme Details
– The specialised fabs, companies or joint ventures (not necessarily Indians)
with relevant past experience need to commit to a minimum capital
investment threshold of ₹100 crores. The capacity commitment is roughly
500 Wafer Starts Per Month for 150/200mm wafer size. After evaluating all
applications, the union government will provide financial support of 30%
capital expenditure.

– For the ATMP, companies or joint ventures (not necessarily Indians) with
relevant past experience need to commit to a minimum capital investment
threshold of ₹50 crores. After evaluating all applications, the union
government will provide financial support of 30% capital expenditure.
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– Tenure: the scheme is open for applications initially
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v 15
years starting 01-01-2022. arg
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– The disbursement of the financial r ip
ly fsupport begins after the capital
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investment threshold has beenOcrossed and commercial production has
begun.
• Scheme for Setting up of Display Fabs in India
– Further, the document goes on to say that the reason display
fabs haven’t succeeded is that manufacturers here face a 10%
cost disadvantage due to “the lack of adequate infrastructure,
domestic supply chain and logistics; high cost of finance; and
focus on R&D by the industry; and inadequacies in skill
development.” To compensate for this disability, an industrial
policy instrument of part-financing two display fabs has been
conceived.
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– Most of the display panel manufacturers il.c
are located in East
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Asia — companies from China, Taiwan, g a v1
5 South Korea, and

Japan dominate this industry. incybhar

r ip cost of mobile devices and 50 per
• displays account for 25 pery cent
f or
nl
cent cost of LED/LCD TV OSets.
• The LCD market is dominated by China while the OLED market is
dominated by Samsung and LG (both South Korean companies).
• The strategic case seems to be to reduce import dependence on
China.
• Scheme Details
– For companies willing to invest a minimum of Rs 10,000
crores in manufacturing AMOLED or TFT LCD screens in India,
the union government is committing fiscal support of up to 50
per cent of the project cost.

– Applications are open for 45 days initially starting 1 Jan 2022.

Support will be extended at most to two display fab
manufacturers.
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– Disbursement is from the union government ma g will match the
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capital investments by investors atrgaav1predefined
5
ratio, not
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exceeding 50 per cent. rin
cyb
h
ip
or
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– Selection of applicants will be on Quality and Cost Based
Criteria (QCBS), not L1. Evaluation will be done by the newly
proposed India Semiconductor Mission. Composed of industry
experts, this body is tasked with “driving the long-term
strategies for developing sustainable semiconductors and
display ecosystem”.
 Digital Public Infrastructure
• DPI is a set of technology building blocks that drive innovation,
inclusion, and competition at scale, operating under open,
transparent and participatory governance.

• A comprehensive understanding of DPI requires recognition of its

three integral layers: Market, governance, and technology
standards. il.c
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– The market layer consists of innovative and gm
5 @competitive players
v1
designing inclusive products. h a rga
cyb
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r ip
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– The governance layer requires
O n lylegal and institutional frameworks,
along with public programmes to drive adoption, and specific
overarching principles and policies.

– Technology standards, including those for identity, payments, and data

sharing, must be built or adapted to enable interoperability and the
adoption of shared standards.
 ONDC
• ONDC is an interoperable network based on the
BeckN protocol that anyone can piggyback on.

• It seeks to break down silos in digital commerce

by enabling platforms of varying configurations ail.c
om

(big or small) to connect and operate a v1

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seamlessly
on it. pri
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• It comprises different entities called ‘Network

Participants’, including Buyer Applications, Seller
Applications, and Gateways that perform the
search and discovery function.
• Benefits-

– By moving the exchange of goods and services from a platform-centric

approach to a network-centric approach, ONDC eliminates the need for
buyers and sellers to use the same application, and promotes the
discoverability of local digital stores across industries.

– This paradigm shift from “store of value” to “flow of value” brings with
it a multitude of benefits. co
m
m ail.
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rga
ha
– From the buyer’s perspective, ONDC yboffers greater freedom of choice,
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reducing the overwhelming reliance
nly
fo on a single platform.
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– Sellers also stand to benefit greatly: the network-centric approach of

ONDC reduces the skewed bargaining power in favour of the
platforms, which often results in higher entry barriers and lower
margins for sellers.
• The ONDC entity, a not-for-profit company incorporated under Section 8 of the
Companies Act 2013, manages and operates the ONDC Network.

• It is responsible for building and maintaining the underlying infrastructure

(common registries and protocols) as well as defining the rules of engagement and
code of conduct for the Network Participants through the ONDC Network Policy and
the ONDC Network Participant Agreement.

• How will the system be funded?

– The ONDC entity was initially promoted by the Quality Council of India and Protean e-Gov
Technologies Limited in December 2021, and has since raised.cmore m than Rs 180 crore from
i l o
multiple investors including private and public sector banks,
gm
a depositories, development
banks, and other financial institutions. v1
5 @
arga
bh cy allotments, the ONDC entity aims to
– While initial funding was obtained throughpshare rin
i
develop a self-sustaining financial modely foinr the future.
l
On
– One potential revenue stream could include charging a small fee from platforms to fund
ongoing and expansion-related activities independently. This approach draws on lessons
learned from the limitations of UPI, which was heavily reliant on government subsidies as a
revenue stream.