‘Innovate to transform agriculture’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged young entrepreneurs to ideate on how start-ups could help transform the troubled agriculture sector in India, underlining the government’s push to create jobs.
The BJP government seems to be facing an electoral backlash over agricultural distress and the Opposition has been contesting the government’s claims of job creation — a key poll plank of the BJP when it came to power in 2014. “We invite youngsters to ideate on how to transform agricultural sector,” said Modi as he spoke about the need to ‘Design in India’ along with ‘Make in India’.
“The face of an advancing India is the youth that does not demand jobs, but gives them,” he said, in a countrywide video interaction with youth innovators, referring to the employment opportunities generated by startups. Modi said the government would continue to foster innovation and competition.
Modi added that the ease in paperwork for obtaining patents and trademarks has resulted in a threefold increase in its registrations since the BJP government came to power.
“Not only the ease of filing patents, but also the number of patents per person have gone up in the last three years,” said Guhesh Ramanathan, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Excubator, a Bengaluru-based start-up incubator and corporate venturing advisory firm. Modi also said the government was widening the ambit of start-ups to include manufacturing and agriculture ventures. These were more concentrated in tier-II and tier-III cities, he said.
“Yes, start-ups in the manufacturing and agriculture sector have increased in the last two years, especially in tier-II cities,” said Ramanathan. “Handicrafts start-ups are also on the rise, and they are all tech-enabled. They increasingly have an online presence, which I think is phenomenal.” Modi’s speech came hours before Congress party president Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district where he demanded that the Centre must address farm distress.
The BJP’s recent defeat in the Kairana by-poll in UP was also attributed to sugarcane farmers’ anger over non-payment of dues. The government quickly decided to roll out a ₹8,000 crore package to alleviate the sugarcane industry’s problems. Farmers have been dumping produce on public roads or intentionally cutting supplies of milk as a mark of protest in various states that include poll-bound MP and Rajasthan, Punjab, and Karnataka.
We invite youngsters to ideate on how to transform agricultural sector. The face of an advancing India is youth that does not demand jobs, but gives them. NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister