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The Union Budget seeks to complement macro-economic level growth with a focus on micro-economic level all inclusive welfare. The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament today.

The key highlights of the budget are as follows:

PART A

·         India’s economic growth estimated at 9.2% to be the highest among all large economies.

·         60 lakh new jobs to be created under the productivity linked incentive scheme in 14 sectors.

·         PLI Schemes have the potential to create an additional production of Rs 30 lakh crore.

·         Entering Amrit Kaal, the 25 year long lead up to India @100, the budget provides impetus for growth along four priorities:

1.     PM GatiShakti

2.     Inclusive Development

3.     Productivity Enhancement & Investment, Sunrise opportunities, Energy Transition, and Climate Action.

4.     Financing of investments

PM GatiShakti

·         The seven engines that drive PM GatiShakti are Roads, Railways, Airports, Ports, Mass Transport, Waterways and Logistics Infrastructure.

PM GatiShkati National Master Plan

·         The scope of PM GatiShakti National Master Plan will encompass the seven engines for economic transformation, seamless multimodal connectivity and logistics efficiency.

·         The projects pertaining to these 7 engines in the National Infrastructure Pipeline will be aligned with PM GatiShakti framework.

Road Transport

·         National Highways Network to be expanded by 25000 Km in 2022-23.

·         Rs 20000 Crore to be mobilized for National Highways Network expansion.

Multimodal Logistics Parks

·         Contracts to be awarded through PPP mode in 2022-23 for implementation of Multimodal Logistics Parks at four locations.

Railways

·         One Station One Product concept to help local businesses & supply chains.

·         2000 Km of railway network to be brought under Kavach, the indigenous world class technology and capacity augmentation in 2022-23.

·         400 new generation Vande Bharat Trains to be manufactured during the next three years.

·         100 PM GatiShakti Cargo terminals for multimodal logistics to be developed during the next three years.

Parvatmala

·         National Ropeways Development Program, Parvatmala to be taken up on PPP mode.

·         Contracts to be awarded in 2022-23 for 8 ropeway projects of 60 Km length.

Inclusive Development

Agriculture

·         Rs. 2.37 lakh crore direct payment to 1.63 crore farmers for procurement of wheat and paddy.

·         Chemical free Natural farming to be promoted throughout the county. Initial focus is on farmer’s lands in 5 Km wide corridors along river Ganga.

·         NABARD to facilitate fund with blended capital to finance startups for agriculture & rural enterprise.

·         ‘Kisan Drones’ for crop assessment, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients.

Ken Betwa project

·         1400 crore outlay for implementation of the Ken – Betwa link project.

·         9.08 lakh hectares of farmers’ lands to receive irrigation benefits by Ken-Betwa link project.

MSME

·         Udyam, e-shram, NCS and ASEEM portals to be interlinked.

·         130 lakh MSMEs provided additional credit under Emergency Credit Linked Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS)

·         ECLGS to be extended up to March 2023.

·         Guarantee cover under ECLGS to be expanded by Rs 50000 Crore to total cover of Rs 5 Lakh Crore.

·         Rs 2 lakh Crore additional credit for Micro and Small Enterprises to be facilitated under the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).

·         Raising and Accelerating MSME performance (RAMP) programme with outlay of Rs 6000 Crore to be rolled out.

Skill Development

·         Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood (DESH-Stack e-portal) will be launched to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through on-line training.

· Startups will be promoted to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ and for Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS).

Education

·         ‘One class-One TV channel’ programme of PM eVIDYA to be expanded to 200 TV channels.

· Virtual labs and skilling e-labs to be set up to promote critical thinking skills and simulated learning environment.

· High-quality e-content will be developed for delivery through Digital Teachers.

· Digital University for world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience to be established.

Health

·         An open platform for National Digital Health Ecosystem to be rolled out.

‘National Tele Mental Health Programme’ for quality mental health counselling and care services to be launched.

·         A network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence will be set up, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technology support.

Saksham Anganwadi

·         Integrated benefits to women and children through Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.

·         Two lakh anganwadis to be upgraded to Saksham Anganwadis.

Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal - Rs. 60,000 crore allocated to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23 under Har Ghar, Nal se Jal.

 Housing for All

·         Rs. 48,000 crore allocated for completion of 80 lakh houses in 2022-23 under PM Awas Yojana.

Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North-East Region (PM-DevINE)

·          New scheme PM-DevINE launched to fund infrastructure and social development projects in the North-East.

·         An initial allocation of Rs. 1,500 crore made to enable livelihood activities for youth and women under the scheme.