Industry should increase investments in Agriculture sector : Venkaiah Naidu

5 Dariya News

Vishakhapattanam 24-Feb-2018

The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that industry should increase investments in agriculture as over 58 per cent of the rural households are dependent on agriculture in India. He was addressing the CII Partnership Summit 2018, in Vishakhapattanam, Andhra Pradesh today. The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, the Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Shri Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.The Vice President said asked investors to look into the tremendous potential for investments. He further said that value addition can be made in agriculture and allied sectors like dairying, fisheries, poultry, food processing, setting up of cold storage facilities and refrigerated vans. Adding value to the farm produce is crucial for increasing farmers income and establishing agri-related industries in the rural areas will not only provide employment but also help in minimizing migration to cities, he added.The Vice President said that Vital structural reforms like the implementation of demonetization and GST by the Indian government have led to an expansion of the formal economy and brought about increased tax compliance. The number of people, who had filed Income Tax returns increased from 6.47 crore in 2014-15 to 8.27 crore at the end of 2016-17, he added.The Vice President said that Indian companies need to identify segments of global value chains with higher value addition and low entry barriers in global markets to achieve higher exports in the short term. He further said that connecting to global value chains is critical for Indian MSMEs. Access to technology and internet can be a major factor to allow SMEs to integrate with the global market and e-trade allows SMES to reach out to new export avenues and access to low-cost imported inputs, he added.The Vice President welcomed the delegates to the Sunrise State of Andhra Pradesh, which is among the top States in the Ease of Doing Business. He further said that this State is endowed with a rich vast mineral resources, long coastline, talented human resources and most importantly uninterrupted power supply. It is endowed with rich natural resources & mineral wealth and boasts of the second longest coastline of 974 kms in the country next to Gujarat and it has 1000km of National Highways, 3 International airports and 5 operational airports, he added.