Cabinet Approvals on March 19, 2025

On March 19 2025, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has approved the following proposals/schemes:

i.Revised National Program for Dairy Development (NPDD), with additional Rs 1,000 crore  for the program, thus bringing the total budget to Rs 2,790 crore for the period of the 15th Finance Commission (FC) cycle i.e. from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

ii.Incentive Scheme for promotion of low-value Bharat Interface for Money- Unified Payments Interface (BHIM-UPI) transactions Persons to Merchant (P2M)’, with estimated budget of Rs 1,500 crore for Financial Year 2024-25 (FY25).

iii.Revised Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM), with an additional Rs 1,000 crore, bringing the total allocation to Rs 3,400 crore during 15th FC cycle from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

iv.Setting up of a new Brownfield Ammonia-Urea Complex of 12.7 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) annual capacity of urea production, at Namrup in Assam, with total estimated cost of Rs 10,601.40 crore.

v.Construction of a 6-lane access-controlled Greenfield high-speed National Highway (NH) to connect Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) Port (Pagote) with 29.219 kilometer (km)-long Chowk in Maharashtra at an estimated cost of Rs 4,500.62 crore.

Cabinet Approved Revised National Program for Dairy Development(NPDD):

The Union Cabinet has approved the revised NPDD which is a Central Sector Scheme(CSS), by allocating additional Rs 1,000 crore  for the program, thus bringing the total budget to Rs 2,790 crore for the period of the 15th Finance Commission (FC) cycle i.e. from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

• The primary objective of this initiative is to modernize and expand dairy infrastructure.
• The revised NPDD will give a boost to the dairy sector by creating infrastructure for milk procurement, processing capacity, and better quality control.

Key Benefits:

i.The revised NPDD is expected to set up 10,000 new Dairy Cooperative Societies, processing in the North Eastern Region (NER), and the formation of 2 Milk Producer Companies (MPCs) with dedicated grant support .

ii.The revised NPDD is expected to transform India’s modern dairy infrastructure, in alignment with White Revolution 2.0 and will further support the newly set up cooperatives by facilitating them with advanced technology, and quality testing labs.

Two Key Components of NPDD:

i.Component A: This component of the scheme aimed to improve important dairy infrastructure, such as milk chilling plants, advanced milk testing laboratories, and certification systems.

ii.Component B: It is known as ‘Dairying through Cooperatives (DTC)’ which will continue to promote dairy development through cooperation with the Government of Japan and Japan International  Cooperation Agency (JICA) in accordance with the agreements signed.

• This component primarily focuses on the sustainable development of dairy cooperatives, enhancing production, processing, and marketing infrastructure in 9 states: Andhra Pradesh (AP), Bihar, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and West Bengal (WB).

Key Progress:

i.So far, NPDD scheme has benefitted over 18.74 lakh farmers and has created more than 30,000 direct and indirect jobs.

ii.The milk procurement capacity has been increased by an additional 100.95 lakh liters(l) per day.

iii.More than 51,777 village-level milk testing laboratories have been strengthened under this scheme, while 5,123 bulk milk coolers with a combined capacity of 123.33 lakh liters have been installed.

iv.Additionally, 169 labs have been upgraded with Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) milk analysers, and 232 dairy plants now have modern systems for detecting adulteration.

Cabinet Approved Rs 1500 Crore Incentive Scheme for Low-Value BHIM-UPI Transactions:

The Union Cabinet has approved ‘Incentive Scheme for promotion of low-value BHIM-UPI transactions Persons to Merchant (P2M)’, with estimated budget of Rs 1,500 crore for Financial Year 2024-25 (FY25).

• The scheme will cover only UPI P2M transactions up to Rs 2,000 for small merchants and will be implemented from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025.
• As per the scheme, small merchants accepting UPI payments up to Rs 2,000 will receive an incentive at the rate of 0.15% per transaction and will not pay Merchant Discount Rate (MDR).

Key Features:

i.The scheme has clarified that no incentive will be paid by the GoI to large merchants for transactions above Rs 2,000 and these transactions will remain MDR-free.

ii.Acquiring banks will get 80% of their admitted claim amount for all quarters of the scheme, without any conditions.

iii.While, the remaining 20% of the admitted claim amount for each quarter will be disbursed, after the completion of the following two conditions:

• 10% of the admitted amount will be paid only when the technical decline rate of the acquiring bank will be below 0.75%.
• And, 10% of the remaining admitted amount will be paid only when the system uptime of the acquiring bank will be above 99.5%.

Key Benefits:

i.The scheme will allow small merchants to avail of UPI services at no extra cost.

ii.The scheme will provide seamless payment facilities to common citizens with no additional charges.

Points to Note: 

• The GoI has set the target of achieving Rs 2,000 crore total transaction volume in FY25.
• As per Reserve Bank Of India(RBI), MDR upto 0.90% of transaction value is applicable across all card networks. (for Debit cards). As per National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) , MDR upto 0.30% of transaction value is applicable for UPI P2M transaction. In January 2020, MDR was made zero for RuPay Debit Cards and BHIM-UPI transactions.

Cabinet Approved Implementation of Revised Rashtriya Gokul Mission(RGM) with Enhanced Allocation for FY25 and FY26

The cabinet has approved the Revised RGM, as central sector component of development programmes scheme, with an additional Rs 1,000 crore, bringing the total allocation to Rs 3,400 crore during 15th FC cycle from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

• This revised RGM aims to strengthen livestock development and increase farmers’ income through improved milk production.

i.Two new incentives have been introduced to the scheme: 

• The 1st one is One-time assistance of 35% of the capital cost for setting up of Heifer Rearing Centres to Implementing Agencies for 15,000 heifer cows across 30 housing facilities.
• 2nd-one is offering 3% interest subvention on loan taken by the farmer from milk unions/financial institutions/banks for the purchase of High Genetic Merit (HGM) In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) heifer cows.

ii.The scheme will continue to support key activities of RGM such as: semen station strengthening, Artificial Insemination (AI), bull production, cattle breeding programs, among others.

Key Progress:

i.With the implementation of RGM, India’s milk production has increased by 63.55% in the last decade, with per capita milk availability has increased from 307 grams (gm) per day (in FY14) to 471 gm per day (in FY24).

• Additionally, livestock productivity has increased by 26.34% during the last 10 years.

ii.Over 8.39 crore animals have been covered and 5.21 crores farmers have benefitted from the National Artificial Insemination Programme (NAIP) which was introduced under the RGM.

• NAIP aimed to provide free of cost AI at the farmer’s doorstep in 605 districts across India where the baseline AI coverage was less than 50%.

iii.So far, total 22 IVF labs have been established across the country under the State Livestock Boards (SLBs) or in Universities and more than 2,541 HGM calves have been born.

Cabinet Approved Setting Up of New Brownfield Ammonia-Urea Plant in Assam:

The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal for setting up of a new Brownfield Ammonia-Urea Complex of 12.7 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) annual capacity of urea production, at Namrup in Assam.

• The new complex will be established within the existing premises of Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Limited (BVFCL), with total estimated cost of Rs 10,601.40 crore.

Key Points:

i.The new complex will be constructed through Joint Venture (JV) with Debt Equity Ratio (DER) of 70:30, under the New Investment Policy, 2012 read with its amendments on October 7, 2014.

• Also, the tentative overall time schedule for starting of the project is 48 months.

ii.The cabinet has also approved the National Fertilizers Limited (NFL)’s 18% equity participation in relaxation to the limits outlined in Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), under the Ministry of Finance(MoF), guidelines; and formation of an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) to monitor the process of setting up of Namrup-IV Fertilizer plant.

iii.Equity pattern in the proposed JV for entities involved in the project will be: Government of Assam (40%), BVFCL (11%), Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Limited (HURL) (13%), NFL (18%) and Oil India Limited (OIL) (18%).

Cabinet Approved Construction of 6-lane Highway Project in Maharashtra

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by PM Narendra Modi has approved the construction of a 6-lane access-controlled Greenfield high-speed National Highway (NH) to connect Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) Port (Pagote) with 29.219 kilometer (km)-long Chowk in Maharashtra.

• The project will be developed in Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) mode at an estimated cost of Rs 4,500.62 crore.
• The project aimed at addressing connectivity issues and improving the logistic efficiency of connecting JNPA port and Navi Mumbai International Airport (Maharashtra).

Key Points:

i.The project alignment  will start at JNPA Port (NH348) near Pagote village and will end at Mumbai-Pune Highway (NH-48).

• The project will also link Mumbai-Pune Expressway and Mumbai-Goa NH (NH-66).

ii.The new corridor will traverse the Uran-Chirner NH, starting from Amra Marg from Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra); Goa NH, and Pune Expressway.

iii.The project will enhance connectivity by reducing travel time from Mumbai to Goa NH to just 20-30 minutes from Mumbai Trans Harbour Bridge (Atal Setu).