Warehousing and Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (e-NWR) are going to play a critical role in the transformation of India and rural India in particular, said  Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD).  

The Secretary was addressing a seminar on “e-NWR – An Effective Tool for Promoting Pledge Financing” organized by the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) under DFPD on Monday in New Delhi..

Pandey spoke about a paradigm shift and how in the next 25 years, real growth is going to come from rural India with mechanisation of agriculture, regulation of warehousing, organisation of the informal sectors of the economy, increase in financing and credit flow access in the rural economy and mobilisation of the potential of cooperative societies leading to better governance and accountability.

He said that warehouses will continue to be required for safe storage, food security, financing and export.

Highlighting Government various steps for increasing registration of warehouses and promoting the benefits of registration of warehouses with WDRA and pledge finance against e-NWRs, Pandey stated that these include encouraging all Government stocks to be kept in the WDRA registered warehouses and reduction in cost of insurance. He further said that the electronic negotiable warehouse receipts envisaged by WDRA have become a reality and inspired all the stakeholders and partners to continue their collective approach to benefit the people of the country.

T. K. Manoj Kumar, Chairperson, WDRA highlighted that WDRA was an initiative of public policy where the benefits of technology had been transferred into benefits for farmer with the objective to make e-NWR a prime tool of trade, increase rural liquidity, increase farmers’ income, reduce post-harvest losses, etc. There had been an increase in the number of warehouses registered with WDRA and its outreach with banks and farmers had improved exponentially.

He gave the example of the special product launched by SBI for lending against e-NWRs at reduced interest rate and lower fees. The Karnataka Bank Limited has told us that they are in the process of launching a new product on e-NWR pledge finance. He said that the pledge finance in the last few years had been increasing steadily and appreciated the efforts of both public and private sector banks in this regard.

The panel discussion was robust and enriching and brought out the benefits of e-NWR for promoting pledge finance. The panelists and the audience made various suggestions for improving the overall warehousing ecosystem.

On this occasion, WDRA felicitated Shri G.C Chaturvedi, former Chairperson of WDRA and Dr.  B.B. Pattanaik who had held charge as Chairperson of WDRA. WDRA also awarded State Warehousing Corporations, Public and Private Banks, Marketing Boards and Warehousemen in recognition of their role in promoting pledge finance throughout the country.  

The seminar was well attended by representatives from DFPD, various Ministries and Government bodies including PSUs working in agriculture/warehousing/logistics/financing, repositories, commodity exchanges, commodity boards, banks, industry organisations, training and inspection agencies of WDRA, warehousemen and media personnel.

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