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Under scheme of tech upgrade, MoFPI to provide grant to process millet
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Wednesday, 17 December, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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fiogf49gjkf0d In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, minister of state for food processing industries, said that in the Eleventh Five-year Plan, the ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI) implemented a scheme of technology upgrade/establishment/modernisation of food processing industries (TUS) for the processing of agricultural produce, including millet grains.
However, during the Twelfth Five-year Plan, the said scheme was subsumed in the National Mission on Food Processing (NFMP), a Centrally-sponsored Scheme, with effect from April 1, 2012, and the same is being implemented through the governments of states and Union Territories (UT).
Under the above scheme, financial assistance, in the form of grant-in-aid, would be provided to the interested and eligible entrepreneurs at 25 per cent of the cost of plant and machinery and technical civil works, subject to a maximum of Rs 50 lakh in general areas; at 33.33 per cent, subject to a maximum of Rs 75 lakh in difficult areas, and at 50 per cent, subject to a maximum of Rs 100 lakh for the North-Eastern states, for the establishment of new food processing units as well as the technological upgrade and expansion of existing units to facilitate the processing of agricultural produce, including millet grains.
In order to promote value addition in agricultural produce, including the preparation of food products with millet grains, MoFPI is implementing another scheme, titled ‘Quality Assurance, Codex Standards, Research and Development and Promotional Activities’.
Under the scheme, one of the components is research and development (R&D), with an objective to enable development of new food products, including the products prepared with millet grains and the use of cost-effective technologies for making such products.
The scheme provides financial assistance to universities; the Indian Institutes of Technologies (IIT); Central and state government institutions; publicly and privately-funded organisations and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-recognised R&D units in private sector for facilitating R&D for value addition in food products, including the products prepared with millet grains.
For government organisations, the quantum of grant is up to 100 per cent of the equipment cost plus the costs of consumables and expenditure related to junior research fellows (JRF)/senior research fellowships (SRF)/research associateships (RA).
In case of private organisations, the same is to the tune of 50 per cent in general areas and 70 per cent in the difficult areas. For the R&D projects sponsored by the ministry, the grant is up to 100 per cent.
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