The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday, November 11 approved a package of proposals worth Rs 77,101 crore, headlined by a Rs 62,370 crore fertiliser subsidy for the Rabi season, a Noida-Greater Noida metro extension, a new national museum in Delhi and five more years of credit-guarantee support for small entrepreneurs. Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the decisions after the Cabinet meeting in New Delhi.

Source: Daily Jagran

The largest share goes to farmers. The Cabinet approved Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) rates on phosphatic and potassic (P&K) fertilisers, including DAP, for Rabi 2026-27, covering October 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027, with a tentative budget requirement of Rs 62,370.02 crore. That is Rs 24,417.73 crore — about 64 per cent — more than the Rs 37,952.29 crore for Rabi 2025-26, the Press Information Bureau said in Release ID 2334972. The subsidy is paid to fertiliser manufacturers and importers, who sell 28 grades of P&K fertilisers, including DAP and NPKS, to farmers at subsidised prices under a scheme in force since April 1, 2010.

Source: Press Information Bureau (PIB)

Rs 77,101 croreTotal Cabinet package
Rs 62,370 croreRabi fertiliser subsidy
8.449 kmNoida Aqua Line extension
Rs 3,230 croreYuge Yugeen Bharat Museum

Briefing reporters, Vaishnaw said the retail price of a 50-kg bag of DAP would stay at Rs 1,350. The Hindu BusinessLine reported that the nitrogen subsidy rises to Rs 94.21 per kg for Rabi, against Rs 47.32 per kg in Kharif 2026, that the government also approved a sulphur package for domestic manufacturers, and that total fertiliser stocks stood at 235.21 lakh tonnes on November 10, against 173.46 lakh tonnes a year earlier. The higher outlay follows a surge in international prices of fertilisers and inputs such as urea, DAP, MOP and sulphur.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

For commuters in the National Capital Region, the Cabinet approved the extension of the Noida Metro Aqua Line from Noida Sector-51 to Greater Noida Sector-04 at an estimated cost of Rs 2,390 crore. The 8.449-kilometre elevated corridor will have five new stations and an interchange with the Blue Line at Noida Sector-61. Vaishnaw said the project would be completed in about four years, taking the combined active metro network of Noida and Greater Noida to 71.878 kilometres.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs also approved Rs 3,230 crore to develop the Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum through adaptive reuse of the North and South Block complex in New Delhi. The museum will have a built-up area of about 1,78,509 square metres, which the government says will give it the largest display area of any museum in the world. It will be built in phases from 2026-27 to 2030-31, with the first gallery, on the theme of Adornment, expected to open in the North Block in the later part of 2027.

Small businesses get a longer runway. The Cabinet approved continuing the Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana with a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore, and the credit guarantee fund for Stand-Up India with a corpus of Rs 4,111 crore, both for five years up to March 31, 2031. Stand-Up India guarantees loans of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore to women and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe entrepreneurs for greenfield enterprises, and the extension targets an additional 2.5 lakh entrepreneurs.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine