Tech & R&D a pillar of Budget 2021: Mega Deep Ocean & Translation Missions; Space boost

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday in her third Union Budget announced a Rs 1500 crore scheme in order to boost digital transactions, and included Research and Development as one of her six pillars of the budget speech.

"There has been a manifold increase in digital payments in the recent past, to give a further boost to digital transactions Rs 1500 crores for the proposed scheme that will provide financial incentives to promote a digital mode of payments".

In her 2019 budget speech, FM Sitharaman had proposed to establish a National Research Foundation to fund and promote research. Now as the modalities have been worked out this year, FM allocated Rs 50,000 crore for NRF over 5 years. It will ensure the strengthening of overall research ecosystem in the country with a focus on identified national priorities trust area. These come under the Innovation and R&D pillars.

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National Language Translation Mission

"We will undertake a new initiative – National Language Translation Mission (NTLM). This will enable the wealth of governance-and-policy related knowledge on the Internet being made available in major Indian languages," the Finance Minister said. 

Budget 2021 For Space

She added, "The New Space India Limited (NSIL), a PSU under the Department of Space will execute the PSLV-CS51 launch, carrying the Amazonia Satellite from Brazil, along with a few smaller Indian satellites. As part of the Gaganyaan mission activities, four Indian astronauts are being trained on Generic Space Flight aspects, in Russia. The first unmanned launch is slated for December 2021."

Deep Ocean Mission with Mega outlay

"Our oceans are a storehouse of living and non-living resources. To better understand this realm, we will launch a Deep Ocean Mission with a budget outlay of more than `4,000 crores, over five years. This Mission will cover deep ocean survey exploration and projects for the conservation of deep sea bio-diversity.," the Finance Minister announced.

The budget proposals for FY 21-22, relies on the six pillars- health & well-being, physical & financial capital & infrastructure, inclusive development for aspirational India, reinvigorating human capital, innovation & R&D, Minimum Govt & Maximum Governance.

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Incentives for Startups

In order to incentivise startups in the country, FM proposed to extend the eligibility for claiming tax holidays for startups by one more year, till March 31, 2022. Also to incentivise funding for the startups, the Capital Gains Exemption for investment in startups was extended by one more year till March 31, 2022.

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