Kautilya

The mission is expected to give mushroom cultivation a structured policy framework rather than treating it as a small side activity. Reports say the government wants to scale production sharply, support growers with subsidies, create new production units, and bring women’s self-help groups into the centre of the programme. Some reports have pegged the proposed outlay at ₹12,960 crore, with a focus on training, production infrastructure and rural enterprise development.

The April data showed that manufacturing led the broader recovery in India’s private sector after growth had moderated in March amid disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict. The Manufacturing PMI Output Index climbed to 59.1 from 55.7, showing a sharper rise in production activity, while goods producers also reported faster growth in new orders compared with service providers.

The rise was led mainly by an increase in foreign currency assets, the largest component of India’s reserves. Foreign currency assets rose by $1.481 billion to $557.463 billion during the week. These assets include the effect of movements in non-dollar currencies such as the euro, pound and yen when expressed in dollar terms.