Farming as an activity contributes nearly 1/6th to our National GDP and a major portion of our population is dependent on it for livelihood. It has risen to the challenge of making India largely self-sufficient in providing food for a growing population. To make farming competitive and profitable; there is an urgent need to step up investment, both public and private, in agro-technology development and creation and modernization of existing agri-business infrastructure. Indian Agricultural Research Institute Pusa has been at the forefront of research in this area. However, since independence only one such centre has been established. Government will establish two more such institutions of excellence on similar pattern in Assam and Jharkhand with an initial sum of Rs.100 crore in the current financial year. In addition, an amount of Rs.100 crore is being set aside for setting up an "Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund".It is also proposed to establish Agriculture Universities in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and Horticulture Universities in Telangala and Haryana. An initial sum of Rs.200 crores has been allocated for this purpose. Deteriorating soil health has been a cause of concern and leads to sub optimal utilization of farming resources. Government will initiate a scheme to provide to every farmer a soil health card in a Mission mode. I propose to set aside a sum of Rs.100 crore for this purpose and an additional Rs.56 crores to set up 100 Mobile Soil Testing Laboratories across the country. There have also been growing concerns about the imbalance in the utilization of different types of fertilizers resulting in deterioration of the soil. Banks are providing strong credit support to the agriculture sector. A target of Rs.8 lakh crore has been set for agriculture credit during 2014-15 which, I am confident, the banks will surpass this. Under the Interest Subvention Scheme for short term crop loans, the banks are extending concessional rate of 7%. The farmers get a further incentive of 3% for timely repayment. I propose to continue the Scheme in 2014-15. NABARD operates the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, out of the priority sector leading shortfall of the banks, which helps in creation of infrastructure in agriculture and rural sectors across the country. I propose to raise the corpus of RIDF.Increasing warehousing capacity for increasing the shelf life of agriculture produces and thereby the earring capacity of the farmers is of utmost importance. Keeping in view the urgent need for availability of scientific warehousing infrastructure in the country. I propose an allocation for Rs.5,000 crore for the fund for the year 2014-15. The share of long term investment credit in agriculture is going down as compared to short term crop loan. This is severely hampering the asset creation in agriculture and allied activities. In order to give a boost to long term investment credit in agriculture, I propose to set up "Long Term Rural Credit Fund" in NABARD for the purpose of providing refinance support to Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks with an initial corpus of Rs. 5,000 Crore.Government is committed to reforms in the food sector. Restructuring FCI, reducing transportation and distribution losses and efficacy of PDS would be taken up on priority. Government is also committed to provide wheat and rice at reasonable prices to the weaker sections of the society. Even if due to inadequate rainfall there is a marginal decline in agriculture production stocks in the Central pool are adequate to meet any exigency. Government shall, when required, undertake open market sales to keep prices under control. The eBiz platform aims to create a business and investor friendly system in India by making all business and investment related clearances and compliances available on a 24x7 single portal, with an integrated payment gateway. All Central Government Departments and Ministries will integrate their services with the eBiz platform on priority. A National Industrial Corridor Authority, with its headquarters in Pune, is being set up to coordinate the development of the industrial corridors with smart cities linked to transport connectivity, which will be the cornerstone of the strategy to drive India's growth in manufacturing and urbanization. I have provided an initial corpus of Rs.100 crore for this purpose. The Government is committed to revive the Special Economic Zones and make them effective instruments of industrial production, economic growth, export promotion and employment generation. For achieving this, effective steps would be taken to operationalize the Special Economic Zones, to revive the investors interest to develop better infrastructure and to effectively and efficiently use the available unutilized land. India has emerged as the largest PPP market in the world with over 900 projects in various stages of development. PPPs have delivered some of the iconic infrastructure like airports, ports and highways which are seen as models for development globally. But we have also seen the weakness of the PPP framework and the rigidities in contractual arrangements. Farming as an activity contributes nearly 1/6th to our National GDP and a major portion of our population is dependent on it for livelihood. It has risen to the challenge of making India largely self-sufficient in providing food for a growing population. To make farming competitive and profitable; there is an urgent need to step up investment, both public and private, in agro-technology development and creation and modernization of existing agri-business infrastructure. Indian Agricultural Research Institute Pusa has been at the forefront of research in this area. However, since independence only one such centre has been established. Government will establish two more such institutions of excellence on similar pattern in Assam and Jharkhand with an initial sum of Rs.100 crore in the current financial year. In addition, an amount of Rs.100 crore is being set aside for setting up an "Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund".It is also proposed to establish Agriculture Universities in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and Horticulture Universities in Telangala and Haryana. An initial sum of Rs.200 crores has been allocated for this purpose. Deteriorating soil health has been a cause of concern and leads to sub optimal utilization of farming resources. Government will initiate a scheme to provide to every farmer a soil health card in a Mission mode. I propose to set aside a sum of Rs.100 crore for this purpose and an additional Rs.56 crores to set up 100 Mobile Soil Testing Laboratories across the country. There have also been growing concerns about the imbalance in the utilization of different types of fertilizers resulting in deterioration of the soil. Banks are providing strong credit support to the agriculture sector. A target of Rs.8 lakh crore has been set for agriculture credit during 2014-15 which, I am confident, the banks will surpass this. Under the Interest Subvention Scheme for short term crop loans, the banks are extending concessional rate of 7%. The farmers get a further incentive of 3% for timely repayment. I propose to continue the Scheme in 2014-15. NABARD operates the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, out of the priority sector leading shortfall of the banks, which helps in creation of infrastructure in agriculture and rural sectors across the country. I propose to raise the corpus of RIDF.Increasing warehousing capacity for increasing the shelf life of agriculture produces and thereby the earring capacity of the farmers is of utmost importance. Keeping in view the urgent need for availability of scientific warehousing infrastructure in the country. I propose an allocation for Rs.5,000 crore for the fund for the year 2014-15. The share of long term investment credit in agriculture is going down as compared to short term crop loan. This is severely hampering the asset creation in agriculture and allied activities. In order to give a boost to long term investment credit in agriculture, I propose to set up "Long Term Rural Credit Fund" in NABARD for the purpose of providing refinance support to Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks with an initial corpus of Rs. 5,000 Crore.Government is committed to reforms in the food sector. Restructuring FCI, reducing transportation and distribution losses and efficacy of PDS would be taken up on priority. Government is also committed to provide wheat and rice at reasonable prices to the weaker sections of the society. Even if due to inadequate rainfall there is a marginal decline in agriculture production stocks in the Central pool are adequate to meet any exigency. Government shall, when required, undertake open market sales to keep prices under control. The eBiz platform aims to create a business and investor friendly system in India by making all business and investment related clearances and compliances available on a 24x7 single portal, with an integrated payment gateway. All Central Government Departments and Ministries will integrate their services with the eBiz platform on priority. A National Industrial Corridor Authority, with its headquarters in Pune, is being set up to coordinate the development of the industrial corridors with smart cities linked to transport connectivity, which will be the cornerstone of the strategy to drive India's growth in manufacturing and urbanization. I have provided an initial corpus of Rs.100 crore for this purpose. The Government is committed to revive the Special Economic Zones and make them effective instruments of industrial production, economic growth, export promotion and employment generation. For achieving this, effective steps would be taken to operationalize the Special Economic Zones, to revive the investors interest to develop better infrastructure and to effectively and efficiently use the available unutilized land. India has emerged as the largest PPP market in the world with over 900 projects in various stages of development. PPPs have delivered some of the iconic infrastructure like airports, ports and highways which are seen as models for development globally. But we have also seen the weakness of the PPP framework and the rigidities in contractual arrangements. Submit