The government has initiated the spadework for shifting the financial year to January, from April, to align it with the agriculture production cycle. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had backed the idea of January-December financial year last month while addressing chief ministers at the Governing Council of NITI Aayog.Preliminary work has started and it will gather momentum as year progresses, sources said. The GST implementation from July 1 is also an indication in that direction, sources said, adding that it is being implemented beginning second half of the calender year. The government had last year set-up a high-level committee to study the feasibility of shifting financial year to January 1 from the current practice of starting it from April 1. The committee submitted its report in December, reasoning for the change and its effect on the different agricultural crop periods and its impact on businesses, taxation system and procedures, statistics and data collec