Nagaland Introduces New Schemes To Facilitate Credit Flow To Hard-Working Farmers & Young Entrepreneurs

Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio unveiled three new schemes in his budget presentation for 2022-23 on Tuesday, including the Chief Minister's Microfinance Initiative, Target Champion Scheme (TACS), and Chief Minister's Health Insurance Scheme.

Scheme For Farmers And Entrepreneurs:

Rio said that the Chief Minister's Micro-finance Initiative, which will be launched this year with a budget of Rs. 65 crore, will help hardworking farmers and young entrepreneurs get credit.

Individuals, Self Help Groups, and Farmer Producer Organizations will benefit from the initiative, which aims to make credit more inexpensive and accessible. To that end, he stated that the government will grant either a subsidy or an interest subsidy to specified activities in the agriculture and associated sectors, such as processing units, handicrafts, and small-scale manufacturing.

Additional interest subvention would be offered in addition to what is already available under existing Central Government schemes. The programme will assist farmers in increasing their revenues, promoting credit discipline, encouraging private entrepreneurship, and improving our state's agrimarketing network and infrastructure.

Beneficiaries will be chosen by District Level Selection Committees, with Village Councils acting as guarantors when necessary. The scheme's precise framework will be announced separately.

Chief Minister’s Health Insurance scheme

Rio declared that the government will introduce "The Chief Minister's Health Insurance Scheme" by September this year as a crucial step toward universal health care for all citizens of Nagaland.

The scheme will provide citizens with hospitalisation insurance coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per year, regardless of family income, and cashless services for predefined packages covering secondary and tertiary care procedures at empanelled Government or private hospitals both within and outside the State.

Scheme For Sports persons:

To improve sportspersons' performances, CM Rio announced the introduction of a new "Target Champion Scheme" (TACS), which would provide scholarships for training and development for defined periods of time in order to ensure that the state generates champions at the top levels of sport.

While the chief minister did not provide any additional information about the scheme, he did say that sports academies and Centres of Excellence will be developed in selected prioritised sports disciplines with the help of the State Sports Associations and the Olympic body to help athletes in the state.

Grants Announced In The Preceding Budget Are Now Being Implemented:

Two new grants under the chief minister's office—the Chief Minister's Grant for Journalism and the Chief Minister's Research Grant—were launched in the previous budget to assist the growth of science via research and to empower a dynamic fourth estate, respectively.

The grants, however, were unable to be executed due to pandemic constraints. "However, we are now ready to deploy them in the coming months," said the chief minister on Tuesday.