“In the full budget in July, our government will present a detailed roadmap…”
That’s the confidence Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman came into Parliament with, suggesting the government is confident it will be voted back into power in the next general election that’s just months away.
Tax slabs will stay the same and the government says it’s determined to make India a developed country by 2047, when India will celebrate 100 years of her independence from the British Raj.
It was her sixth consecutive budget speech. It was also her shortest, clocking less than 60 minutes. Sitharaman holds the record for the longest budget speech, which went on for two hours and forty-two minutes in 20
GYAN
Even though this is an interim budget, consistent with the vote on account that most governments tend to follow ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, there is a key acronym that will steer the government’s agenda – GYAN. (G for gareeb, Y for youth, A for annadaata and N for naari.)
‘Jai Anusandhaan’
PM Shastri came up with the slogan of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisaan. After PM Vajpayee’s addition of Jai Vigyaan, this government has added ‘Jai Anusandhaan’ to the slogan to provide an impetus to research.
“A corpus of rupees one lakh crore will be established with a fifty-year interest-free loan. The corpus will provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or nil interest rates,” announced the Finance Minister. This will be with a focus on sunrise domains where the private sector can be incentivised to participate in research and innovation.
Energy
Rooftop solarisation: This scheme aims at installing rooftop solar panels to cover 1 crore households. They will get up to 300 units of free power from this and the surplus can also be sold to the grid. The expected savings are in the range of ₹ 15,000-18,000 per month
Health
Cervical cancer vaccination for young women in the 9-14 years age group to be encouraged
Ayushman Bharat scheme that provides insurance will now cover all ASHA workers and anganwadi workers.
The Ayushman Bharat scheme provides coverage of ₹ 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation
Nari Shakti
The Finance Minister said that India has one of the highest number of women enrolled in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) courses, at 43%. This, according to the FM, has led to increasing participation of women in the workforce.
She also claimed that steps like “30 crore Mudra loans to female entrepreneurs (in the last 10 years), ban on triple talaq, reservation of one-third seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State legislative assemblies, and giving over seventy per cent houses under PM Awas Yojana in rural areas to women as sole or joint owners have enhanced their dignity.” she said.
Lakhpati Didis
The government has enhanced the target under the ‘lakhpati didi’ scheme. Lakhpati didi refers to women self-help group members who have an earning of ₹ 1 lakh a year. The Finance Minister said, “83 lakh self-help groups with nine crore women are transforming the rural socio-economic landscape with empowerment and self-reliance.” There are 1 crore lakhpati didis. The government has now pushed the target to creating 3 crore such lakhpati didis.
Infrastructure
The FM said that the government had forged ahead to build physical, digital and social infrastructure in record time and will continue with that focus.
Three major railway economic corridor programs will be implemented. Road and metro networks are in the process of being built already. The outlay is being increased by 11.1 percent to 11,11,111 crore), which will account for 3.4% of the GDP
Affordable Housing
The government will launch a housing scheme for deserving middle class to buy or build their own homes
PM Awas Yojana (Rural) target will be increased to build 2 crore more homes in the next five years.