Monday

17


May , 2021
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14:22 pm

B.E. Bureau


Nabard extended financial support to combat the pandemic

BE Bureau

 

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) extended financial support of `9162 crore to West Bengal during 2020-21 for the development of agriculture and allied sectors despite challenges due to Covid-19 pandemic. This includes `1269.27 crore loan to the state government for various rural infrastructure development, `3842.32 crore long-term refinance assistance to Rural Financial Institutions (RFIs) for financing investment activities in agriculture & allied sectors and MSME sector and `3757.50 crore short-term refinance to RFIs for supporting production and marketing activities of farmers and rural artisans. For 2021-22, NABARD has estimated a credit potential of `2.21 lakh crore for West Bengal to be disbursed by various banks for the priority sector activities.

 

During 2020-21, NABARD sanctioned 2284 new rural infrastructure projects consisting of rural roads, rural bridges, medium and minor irrigation projects, flood protection projects, solar power plants and Anganwadi Centres with RIDF loan support of `1659.62 crore to the government of West Bengal. On implementation, these projects will lead to creation of 857 km length of rural roads and 129 meter long rural bridges benefitting 949 villages and favorably impacting about 70 lakh people in the rural areas.

 

The 1155 irrigation projects will provide assured irrigation facilities to 30946 ha of agriculture land benefitting 2.19 lakh farmers in 1304 villages of the state. The 22 Flood Protection projects would help in protecting about 17354 ha of land in 70 villages and bringing relief to 6.98 lakh people in flood prone areas. Two solar power plants sanctioned under RIDF would generate 20 MW power for lighting 06 villages and providing electrical facilities to 29,000 villagers. 

 

To promote enhanced irrigation efficiency in the water scarce areas, NABARD sanctioned one Micro Irrigation project to the government of West Bengal with loan support of `276.55 crore under its Micro Irrigation Fund. This will bring 74,592 ha area under micro irrigation coverage spread over 10 districts of the state.  

 

NABARD disbursed a refinance of `3757.50 crore to Rural Cooperative Banks and RRBs for lending towards crop production and other seasonal agriculture operations. This includes Special Liquidity Facility of `720 crore extended to these banks to meet the crop loan requirement of small and marginal farmers.

 

Capgemini’s Social Response Unit is partnering with state government authorities and UNICEF to provide critical Covid care 

 

BE Bureau

 

Capgemini has committed `50 crore to augment the efforts of the central and state administrations in India towards fighting the second wave of Covid-19. This fund will be used to build Covid care ICU facilities, oxygen generation plants and other long-term medical infrastructure and provide relief operations. As part of this effort, Capgemini is in discussions with various state government authorities to set up healthcare facilities across cities.

Aiman Ezzat, CEO of Capgemini said, “At this critical time, we are committed to accelerate medical assistance in India through the Capgemini Social Response Unit. This fund will help to enhance the efforts of the Central and State authorities in building long-term medical infrastructure in India.” 

In addition, Capgemini is also contributing `5 crore to UNICEF to provide immediate support across India for critical Covid response care, by setting up three oxygen generation plants and RT PCR testing machines to augment the government efforts to fight against the pandemic.

Ashwin Yardi, CEO of Capgemini in India commented, “We are also striving to extend help to the communities we live in by providing access to critical care, which is required immediately for the fight against Covid-19 as well as medical needs in the coming years.” 

During 2020, Capgemini’s Social Response Unit (SRU) provided 65 fully equipped ICU beds to three BMC hospitals in Mumbai, as well as 100 Oxygen Concentrators (OC) and 65 High Flow Nasal Cannulas (HFNC) to 15 government hospitals across Bengaluru. These ICU beds, which are fully equipped with ventilators, ECG monitors, and other critical ICU patient-monitoring devices, are currently being used to treat patients critically affected by Covid-19.

 

 

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