(i) Assistance to 50 million sugarcane farmers: The Cabinet has approved assistance of about INR 3,500 crore (approximately USD 470 million) for 50 million sugarcane farmers (and their dependents, as well as the five lakh workers employed in the sugar mills and related ancillary activities). The Government is facilitating the evacuation of surplus sugar stock from the sugar mill owners. This will enable payment of dues of the sugarcane farmers. The assistance would be directly credited into farmers’ accounts on behalf of sugar mills against cane price dues and subsequent balance, if any, would be credited to mill’s account. This subsidy aims at covering expenses on marketing costs including handling, upgrading and other processing costs and costs of international and internal transport and freight charges on export of upto 60 LMT of sugar limited to Maximum Admissible Export Quota (MAEQ) allocated to sugar mills for sugar season 2020-21.
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1681049
(ii) Auction of Spectrum: The Cabinet has approved a proposal of the Department of Telecommunications to conduct spectrum auction for providing commercial mobile services. The auction will be for spectrum in 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz frequency bands. Spectrum will be offered for assignment for validity period of 20 years. Spectrum auction is a transparent process of spectrum assignment to successful bidders. Sufficient spectrum availability increases the quality of telecom services for the consumers.
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1681043
(iii) North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project: The Cabinet has approved revised cost estimate of North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSIP) at an estimated cost of INR 6,700 crore (approximately USD 900 million). This is a major step towards economic development of North Eastern Region through strengthening of Intra - State Transmission and Distribution systems. The scheme is being implemented through POWERGRID, a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under Ministry of Power in association with six beneficiary North Eastern States namely, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura and is targeted to be commissioned by December 2021. The proposal helps economic development of North Eastern Region and to strengthen the Intra-State Transmission & Distribution Infrastructure in the North East Region.
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1681052
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