New Delhi, Sep 18 (FN Agency) The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave nod to the Chandrayaan-4 mission and also approved the proposal for fixing the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) on Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilizers. Addressing a press conference here, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “The Cabinet has approved the mission to moon, named Chandrayaan-4 to develop and demonstrate the technologies to come back to Earth after successfully landing on the Moon and also collect moon samples and analyse them on Earth”. This Chandrayaan-4 mission will achieve the foundational technologies capabilities eventually for an Indian landing on the moon (planned by year 2040) and return safely back to Earth.
ISRO will be responsible for development and launch of the spacecraft, the Minister said. The Cabinet also approved the proposal of the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers for fixing the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) rates for RABI Season, 2024 (from 01.10.2024 to 31.03.2025) on Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilizers. The tentative budgetary requirement for Rabi season 2024 would be approximately Rs.24,475.53 crore. Moreover, the Cabinet approved Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan with a total outlay of Rs.79,156 crore (Central Share: Rs.56,333 crore and State Share: Rs. 22,823 crore) for improving the socio-economic condition of tribal communities, by adopting saturation coverage for tribal families in tribal-majority villages and aspirational districts.
This will cover around 63,000 villages benefiting more than five crore tribal people as announced in the Budget Speech 2024-25. It will cover 549 districts and 2,740 blocks spread across all tribal majority villages across 30 States / UTs. The Cabinet gave its approval for the continuation of schemes of Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) to provide remunerative prices to farmers and to control price volatility of essential commodities for consumers. The total financial outgo will be Rs 35,000 crore during 15th Finance Commission Cycle upto 2025-26. The Cabinet has also approved the development of Venus Orbiter Mission (VOM), that will be a significant step towards the Government’s vision of exploring and studying the Venus, beyond moon and mars.