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Mahesh

24/07/24 12:46 PM IST

UNION BUDGET 2024-2025

In News
  • Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Union Budget 2024-25 in Parliament said that India’s inflation continues to be low, stable and moving towards the 4 per cent target.
Productivity and resilience in Agriculture
  • The Finance Minister announced that the government will undertake a comprehensive review of the agriculture research setup to bring the focus on raising productivity.
  • New 109 high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of 32 field and horticulture crops will be released for cultivation by farmers. 
  • In the next two years, 1 crore farmers across the country will be initiated into natural farming supported by certification and branding.
    10,000 need-based bio-input resource centres will be established.  
  • Government, in partnership with the states, will facilitate the implementation of the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in agriculture for coverage of farmers and their lands in 3 years.
Employment & Skilling
  • The Finance Minister said that the government will implement 3 schemes for ‘Employment Linked Incentive’, as part of the Prime Minister’s package.
  • These will be based on enrolment in the EPFO, and focus on recognition of first-time employees, and support to employees and employers.
  • Government will also facilitate higher participation of women in the workforce through setting up of working women hostels in collaboration with industry, and establishing creches. 
  • 20 lakh youth will be skilled over a 5-year period and 1,000 Industrial Training Institutes will be upgraded in hub and spoke arrangements with outcome orientation.  
  • The  Model Skill Loan Scheme will be revised to facilitate loans up to ₹7.5 lakh with a guarantee from a government promoted Fund, which is expected to help 25,000 students every year.
  • For helping the youth, who have not been eligible for any benefit under government schemes and policies,a financial support for loans upto ₹10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions.
  • E-vouchers for this purpose will be given directly to 1 lakh students every year for annual interest subvention of 3 per cent of the loan amount. 
Purvodaya
  • Government will formulate a plan, Purvodaya, for the all-round development of the eastern region of the country covering Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.  
  • This will cover human resource development, infrastructure, and generation of economic opportunities to make the region an engine to attain Viksit Bharat.
Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan
  • The Finance Minister announced that for improving the socio-economic condition of tribal communities, government will launch the Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan by adopting saturation coverage for tribal families in tribal-majority villages and aspirational districts covering 63,000 villages and benefitting 5 crore tribal people. 
  • More than 100 branches of India Post Payment Bank will be set up in the North East region to expand the banking services. 
    Support for promotion of MSMEs.
  • The budget provides special attention to MSMEs and manufacturing, particularly labour-intensive manufacturing.
  • A separately constituted self-financing guarantee fund will provide, to each applicant, guarantee cover up to ₹100 crore, while the loan amount may be larger.
  • Similarly, Public sector banks will build their in-house capability to assess MSMEs for credit, instead of relying on external assessment.
Mudra Loans
  • The limit of Mudra loans will be enhanced to  ₹ 20 lakh from the current  ₹ 10 lakh for those entrepreneurs who have availed and successfully repaid previous loans under the ‘Tarun’ category.
Urban Housing
  • Under the PM AwasYojana Urban 2.0, housing needs of 1 crore urban poor and middle-class families will be addressed with an investment of  ₹ 10 lakh crore. This will include the central assistance of ₹ 2.2 lakh crore in the next 5 years.
Water Supply and Sanitation
  • In partnership with the State Governments and Multilateral Development Banks, government  will promote water supply, sewage treatment and solid waste management projects and services for 100 large cities through bankable projects.
PM SVANidhi
  • Government envisions a scheme to support each year, over the next five years, the development of 100 weekly ‘haats’ or street food hubs in select cities. 
PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana
  • PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana has been launched to install rooftop solar plants to enable 1 crore households obtain free electricity up to 300 units every month.
  • The scheme has generated remarkable response with more than 1.28 crore registrations and 14 lakh applications.
  • Nuclear energy is expected to form a very significant part of the energy mix for Viksit Bharat. 
 Infrastructure
  • The Finance Minister underlined that significant investment the Central Government has made over the years in building and improving infrastructure has had a strong multiplier effect on the economy.
  • Government will endeavour to maintain strong fiscal support for infrastructure over the next 5 years, in conjunction with imperatives of other priorities and fiscal consolidation.
  • ₹11,11,111 crore for capital expenditure has been allocated this year, which is 3.4 per cent of our GDP.
 Pradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana (PMGSY)
  • The Finance Minister announced that Phase IV of PMGSY will be launched to provide all-weather connectivity to 25,000 rural habitations which have become eligible in view of their population increase.
  • For Irrigation and Flood Mitigation in Bihar, through the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme and other sources, government will provide financial support for projects with estimated cost of ₹11,500 crore such as the Kosi-Mechi intra-state link and 20 other ongoing and new schemes including barrages, river pollution abatement and irrigation projects.
  •  Government will also provide assistance to Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim for flood management, landslides and related projects.
Foreign Direct Investment and Overseas Investment
  • The rules and regulations for Foreign Direct Investment and Overseas Investments will be simplified to (1) facilitate foreign direct investments, (2) nudge prioritization, and (3) promote opportunities for using Indian Rupee as a currency for overseas investments.
NPS Vatsalya
  • NPS-Vatsalya, a plan for contribution by parents and guardians for minors will be started.
  • On attaining the age of majority, the plan can be converted seamlessly into a normal NPS account.
New Pension Scheme (NPS)
  • The Finance Minister said that the Committee to review the NPS has made considerable progress in its work and a solution will be evolved which addresses the relevant issues while maintaining fiscal prudence to protect the common citizens.
Source- PIB

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