Anand Mahindra: India getting carried away by ‘glamorous sectors like IT, ecommerce’

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Budget 2016: Cautioning against getting carried away by "glamorous sectors like IT and e-commerce", Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra today said India needs a new green revolution as income from agriculture is declining. His comments come close on the heels of Budget 2016, which was presented in Parliament on Monday – it sought to perk up rural incomes and give an ostensible thrust to agriculture. This Budget has substantially enhanced the outlay for agriculture and also addressed irrigation and procurement problems. Government says intention is to reorient its interventions in the farm and non-farm sectors to double the income of the farmers by 2022. (Image Source: Reuters)

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Budget 2016: "There has been particularly two years of bad monsoon. Income from agriculture is declining and we are so happy with glamorous sectors like IT and ecommerce that we easily forget that agriculture is true heartbeat of this nation," he said while speaking at Mahindra Samriddhi India Agri Awards 2015 here this evening. (Image Source: Reuters)

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Budget 2016: A majority of Indian population is dependent on agriculture for livelihood, Mahindra added. This year the Narendra Modi led NDA government has projected a growth of agriculture and allied sector at 1.1 per cent. The sector is under distress and cases of farmer suicides have been reported in many states. (Image Source: Reuters)

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Budget 2016: Lamenting the poor attitude towards agriculture in India, Anand Mahindra said, "We have the world's fourth largest agriculture sector. It employs over 50 per cent of our population and constitutes 14 per cent of our GDP yet six decades after independence agriculture is still not seen as a desirable occupation." (Image Source: Reuters)

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Budget 2016: Stressing on the need to give a fillip to the sector, he said, "We have made a lot of progress in agriculture, have benefited from green revolution but we need a new green revolution. I have confidence that this will happen because now we have tools like technology to make it possible." (Image Source: Reuters)