NEW DELHI: Cotton and other key sectors received a fresh policy push on Wednesday as the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Narendra Modi, cleared a series of major projects spanning agriculture, infrastructure, renewable energy and industry. The decisions are aimed at strengthening economic growth, improving logistics and enhancing public welfare.
Among the measures, the Cabinet approved funding support of Rs 1,718.56 crore to the Cotton Corporation of India for procurement operations. An official statement issued later said "in a significant step towards strengthening farmer welfare and advancing the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the CCEA has approved Minimum Support Price (MSP) funding of Rs 1,718.56 crore to the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) for the cotton season 2023-24”. The Government has also fixed the MSP for seed cotton (kapas) based on recommendations from the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. Cotton continues to be a critical cash crop, supporting nearly 60 lakh farmers and providing employment to 400–500 lakh people across processing, trade and textile sectors.
Briefing the media, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Cabinet has also approved the construction of a four-lane, access-controlled National Highway-927 from Barabanki to Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh at a cost of Rs 6,969.04 crore. The project is designed to improve connectivity to major economic, social and logistics hubs. It includes a civil construction cost of Rs 3,485.49 crore and Rs 1,574.85 crore for land acquisition.
According to government estimates, the highway project is expected to generate 36.54 lakh person-days of direct employment and 43.04 lakh person-days of indirect employment. Designed with access control and continuous service roads, it will bypass congested habitations, reduce travel time to about one hour, and improve safety and fuel efficiency. The project is also expected to boost regional development, improve connectivity to districts such as Bahraich and Shravasti, and support agricultural trade, tourism and cross-border commerce.
In the renewable energy sector, the Cabinet approved a small hydropower development scheme with an outlay of Rs 2,585 crore to create 1,500 MW of capacity. Vaishnaw described this as an important environmentally focused decision. “The projects will be developed as run-of-river projects without constructing dams and displacing people”, he said. He noted that India has potential for small hydropower projects at 7,133 sites, with a total capacity of 21,000 MW, while around 5,100 MW is currently operational across 1,196 sites. The scheme will be implemented over five years until 2030–31 and is expected to attract investments of around Rs 15,000 crore.
The Cabinet also approved the Rs 33,660 crore Bharat Audyogik Vikas Yojna (BHAVYA), aimed at developing 100 plug-and-play industrial parks across the country. Vaishnaw said the initiative would help build world-class industrial infrastructure and boost manufacturing. “Under the scheme, industrial parks ranging from 100 to 1,000 acres will be taken up for the development with financial support of up to Rs 1 crore per acre”, he added. The scheme is expected to generate around 15 lakh direct jobs, further supporting India’s industrial expansion.