Updated February 1st, 2023 at 23:37 IST

Innovation in Budget 2023: How Centre recycled existing infrastructure for new initiatives

Nirmala Sitharaman said that the focus is on wide-ranging reforms and sound policies which through 'Jan Bhagidari' will boost India's rising global profile.

Reported by: Harsh Vardhan
The Union Budget 2023 is being praised for being development-centric while bringing relief to the middle class; Image: ANI | Image:self
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The Union Budget 2023 was tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the parliament on Wednesday, February 1, and it is being praised for being development-centric while bringing relief to the middle class. During her speech, Sitharaman said that the focus is on wide-ranging reforms and sound policies which through 'Jan Bhagidari' will boost India's rising global profile. While the Budget for 2023-24 indeed prioritises development amid the current global economic slowdown, the Budget is also innovative considering how the government managed to launch new initiatives by recycling existing infrastructure.

Innovations in Budget 2023

The Finance Minister, during her speech, underscored the Centre's scheme under which over 80 crore people were supplied with free food grains for 28 months during the challenging COVID-19 pandemic. The government's effort to ensure food and nutritional security will continue, said Sitharaman, as it is implementing a new scheme to supply free food grain to all Antyodaya and priority households for the next one year, under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). "The entire expenditure of about two lakh crore will be borne by the Central Government," she said. 

New ways to ensure the economic empowerment of women were also announced considering the success of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Rural Livelihood Mission which successfully mobilised rural women into 81 lakh Self Help Groups. "We will enable these groups to reach the next stage of economic empowerment through the formation of large producer enterprises or collectives with each having several thousand members and managed professionally," Sitharaman said. "They will be helped with the supply of raw materials and for better design, quality, branding and marketing of their products."

Notably, a new scheme the Mahila Samman Savings Patra or Mahila Samman Savings Certificate was launched by the Finance Minister earlier in the day. This new scheme will offer a deposit facility of up to Rs 2 lakh in the name of a woman or a girl child and its tenure will last two years with an interest rate of 7.5% and an option of partial withdrawal. Moreover, the deposit limit for Senior Citizen Savings Scheme has been doubled to Rs 30 lakh and Monthly Income Account Scheme to Rs 9 lakh. 

Innovations in making India skillful

In order to expand India's skill ecosystem, Sitharaman announced the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 which will offer stipend support to 47 lakh youth in the next three years. "The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 will be launched to skill lakhs of youth within the next three years. On-job training, industry partnership, and alignment of courses with needs of industry will be emphasised," the Finance Minister stated.

She further said that the scheme will also cover new-age courses for Industry 4.0 like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills. Moreover, 30 Skill India International Centres will be set up across different states to provide the youth with skills to compete internationally. The launch of a unified Skill India Digital Platform is also in the pipeline to expand the digital ecosystem. The launch will enable demand-based formal skilling, linking with employers including MSMEs and facilitating access to entrepreneurship schemes. In addition to this, Direct Benefit Transfer under a pan-India National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme will be rolled out to provide stipend support to 47 lakh youth in the next three years.

Innovation in education

The Centre has a special plan to bring reforms in the education sector which would also provide employment to thousands. As many as 38,000 teachers and support staff will be recruited for the 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools, serving 3.5 lakh tribal students, in the next three years. Besides, 157 new nursing colleges will be established in co-location with the existing 157 medical colleges established since 2014, said Sitharaman.

The education sector has received an allocation of Rs 1.12 lakh crore for 2023-24, the highest ever, out of which the Department of School Education and the Department of Higher Education will get Rs 68,804 crore, and Rs 44,094, respectively. These efforts would boost the number of medical centres and colleges in India which have witnessed a sharp rise since 2014. The number of medical colleges in India has risen from 387 to 648, said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in December 2022. Out of these, 355 are government and 293 are private, he revealed.

Innovations in 'green mobility'

To achieve the climate-related goals and the aim of net zero carbon emission by 2070, the Centre has introduced numerous measures such as the mission LiFE and the National Green Hydrogen Mission. Developing on the previous measures toward environment conservation, Mission LiFE was introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November 2021 and it aims to mobilise citizens to take individual and collective initiatives toward environment conservation between the period 2022-28.

The National Green Hydrogen Mission, on the other hand, is aimed at facilitating the transition to low carbon intensity, and reducing dependence on fossil fuel imports. Sitharaman announced an outlay of Rs 19,700 crores to reach an annual green hydrogen production of 5 MMT by 2030.

Along the same lines, she also announced a reduction in customs duty on the import cost of lithium-ion cells for their usage as batteries in electric vehicles (EVs). This will reduce the cost of EVs in the market and contribute toward reducing the carbon footprint by curtailing dependence on fossil fuels. The custom duty on luxury vehicles (both petrol-diesel and EVs) have been increased from 60% to 70%, another innovative step to promote manufacturing in India.

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Published February 1st, 2023 at 23:16 IST

Narendra ModiNirmala SitharamanBudget