Govt gives Rs 36Kcr to farm sector; agri-credit at Rs 9lk cr

February 29, 2016

New Delhi, Feb 29: Aiming to double farmers income by 2022, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced an allocation of nearly Rs 36,000 crore for the farm sector while raising the agri-credit target to Rs 9 lakh crore for the next fiscal.

He also allocated Rs 15,000 crore for interest subvention on the farm credit, Rs 5,500 crore for the new crop insurance scheme and Rs 500 crore to boost pulses output.

Jaitley also said that a unified agricultural market will be launched on April 14 and soil health cards will be provided to all 14 crore farmers by March 2017.

"We are grateful to our farmers for being the backbone of the country's food security. We need to think beyond food security and give back to our farmers a sense of income security," Jaitley said while unveiling Budget 2016-17 in Lok Sabha today.

The government would reorient its intervention in the farm and non-farm sector to double the income of farmers by 2022, he added.

"Our total allocation on agriculture and farmers welfare is Rs 35,984 crore," Jaitley said. Asserting that a special focus has been given to ensure adequate and timely flow of credit to farmers, the minister said:"Against the target of Rs 8.5 lakh crore in 2015-16, the target of agricultural credit in 2016-17 will be all-time high of Rs 9 lakh crore."

To reduce the burden of loan repayment on farmers, he said a provision of Rs 15,000 crore has been made in the budgetary estimate of 2016-17 towards interest subvention.

Jaitley said the government has provided a path breaking crop insurance scheme 'Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana', for which Rs 5,500 crore has been allocated for effective implementation in 2016-17.

Stating that irrigation is critical for increasing the agricultural production and productivity, he said,"the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichai Yojana has been strengthened and implemented in mission mode."

He said 28.5 lakh hectare will be brought under irrigation under this scheme. A dedicated long-term irrigation fund will be created in NABARD with an initial corpus of Rs 20,000 crore to build irrigation facilities, Jaitley said.

"Implementation of 89 irrigation projects under Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP), which have been languishing, will be fas-tracked," he said, adding that this would help to irrigate 80.6 lakh hectare.

These 89 projects required Rs 17,000 crore next year and Rs 86,500 crore next five years. The government will complete at least 23 of these projects before March 31, 2017.

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Average age of school children picking up drugs, smoking habit in 10 Indian cities around 13 years!

News Network

December 13,2025

New Delhi: School-going children are picking up drug and smoking habits and engaging in consumption of alcohol, with the average age of introduction to such harmful substances found to be around 13 years, suggesting a need for earlier interventions as early as primary school, a multi-city survey by AIIMS-Delhi said.

The findings also showed substance use increased in higher grades, with grade XI/XII students two times more likely to report use of substances when compared with grade VIII students. This emphasised the importance of continued prevention and intervention through middle and high school.

The study led by Dr Anju Dhawan of AIIMS's National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, published in the National Medical Journal of India this month, looks at adolescent substance use across diverse regions.

The survey included 5,920 students from classes 8, 9, 11 and 12 in urban government, private and rural schools across 10 cities -- Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dibrugarh, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Ranchi. The data were collected between May 2018 and June 2019.

The average age of initiation for any substance was 12.9 (2.8) years. It was lowest for inhalants (11.3 years) followed by heroin (12.3 years) and opioid pharmaceuticals (without prescription; 12.5 years).

Overall, 15.1 per cent of participants reported lifetime use, 10.3 per cent reported past year use, and 7.2 per cent reported use in the past month of any substance, the study found.

The most common substances used in the past year, after tobacco (4 per cent) and alcohol (3.8 per cent), were opioids (2.8 per cent), followed by cannabis (2 per cent) and inhalants (1.9 per cent). Use of non-prescribed pharmaceutical opioids was most common among opioid users (90.2 per cent).

On being asked, 'Do you think this substance is easily available for a person of your age' separately for each substance category, nearly half the students (46.3 per cent) endorsed that tobacco products and more than one-third of the students (36.5 per cent) agreed that a person of their age can easily procure alcohol products.

Similarly, for Bhang (21.9 per cent), ganja/charas (16.1 per cent), inhalants (15.2 per cent), sedatives (13.7 per cent), opium and heroin (10 per cent each), the students endorsed that these can be easily procured.

About 95 per cent of the children, irrespective of their grade, agreed with the statement that 'drug use is harmful'.

The rates of substance use (any) among boys were significantly higher than those of girls for substance use (ever), use in the past year and use in the past 30 days. Compared to grade VIII students, grade IX students were more likely, and grade XI/XII students were twice as likely to have used any substance (ever).

The likelihood of past-year use of any substance was also higher for grade IX students and for grade XI/XII students as compared to grade VIII students.

About 40 per cent of students mentioned that they had a family member who used tobacco or alcohol each. The use of cannabis (any product) and opioid (any product) by a family member was reported by 8.2 per cent and 3.9 per cent of students, respectively, while the use of other substances, such as inhalants/sedatives by family was 2-3 per cent, the study found.

A relatively smaller percentage of students reported use of tobacco or alcohol among peers as compared to among family members, while a higher percentage reported inhalants, sedatives, cannabis or opioid use among peers.

Children using substances (past year) compared to non-users reported significantly higher any substance use by their family members and peers.

There were 25.7 per cent students who replied 'yes' to the question 'conflicts/fights often occur in your family'. Most students also replied affirmatively to 'family members are aware of how their time is being spent' and 'damily members are aware of with whom they spend their time'.

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