Budget 2024: FM Sitharaman delivers sops free interim budget, Focus on women health & farmer income

New Delhi: The Budget 2024 presented by the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman on February 01, 2024, is on the expected lines. Through the interim budget with no sops either for the taxpayers or industries, government displayed its confidence about returning back to the power in upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled later in April and May, 2024.

Finance Minister in her speech listed four focus areas for the government: Poor, Women, Youth and Farmers. “Their needs and aspirations are our highest priorities,” she said.

“In the full budget in July 2024, our government will present a detailed roadmap for our pursuit of Viksit Bharat,” she informed.

Big Focus on healthcare infra and women health

Highlighting the focus on improving the human resources in healthcare, Sitharaman said: “Several youth are ambitious to get qualified as doctors. They aim to serve our people through improved healthcare services. Our government plans to set up more medical colleges by utilizing the existing hospital infrastructure under various departments. A committee for this purpose will be set-up to examine the issues and make relevant recommendations.”

“Our government will encourage vaccination for girls in age group of 9 to 14 years for prevention of cervical cancer,” she outlined.

“Various schemes for maternal and childcare will be brought under one comprehensive programme for synergy in implementation. Upgradation of anganwadi centres under “Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0” will be expedited for improved nutrition delivery, early childhood care and development,” she added.

Finance Minister also pointed out that newly designed U-WIN platform for managing immunization and intensified efforts of Mission Indradhanush will be rolled out expeditiously throughout the country.

Government has also extended the healthcare cover under Ayushman Bharat scheme to all ASHA workers, Anganwadi Workers and Helpers.

Initiatives for increasing farmers’ income 

The efforts for value addition in agricultural sector and boosting farmers’ income will be stepped up. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana has benefitted 38 lakh farmers and generated 10 lakh employment. Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Yojana has assisted 2.4 lakh SHGs and sixty thousand individuals with credit linkages. Other schemes are complementing the efforts for reducing post-harvest losses, and improving productivity and incomes.

For ensuring faster growth of the sector, our government will further promote private and public investment in post-harvest activities including aggregation, modern storage, efficient supply chains, primary and secondary processing and marketing and branding.

After the successful adoption of Nano Urea, application of Nano DAP on various crops will be expanded in all agro-climatic zones.

Building on the initiative announced in 2022, a strategy will be formulated to achieve ‘atmanirbharta’ for oil seeds such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower. This will cover research for high-yielding varieties, widespread adoption of modern farming techniques, market linkages, procurement, value addition, and crop insurance.

A comprehensive programme for supporting dairy farmers will be formulated. Efforts are already on to control foot and mouth disease. India is the world’s largest milk producer but with low productivity of milch-animals. The programme will be built on the success of existing schemes such Rashtriya Gokul Mission, National Livestock Mission, and Infrastructure Development Funds for dairy processing and animal husbandry.

“It was our government which set up a separate Department for Fisheries realizing the importance of assisting fishermen. This has resulted in doubling of both inland and aquaculture production. Seafood export since 2013-14 has also doubled.  Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) will be stepped up to enhance aquaculture productivity from existing 3 to 5 tons per hectare, double exports to `1 lakh crore and generate 55 lakh employment opportunities in near future. Five integrated aquaparks will be setup.” Finance Minister announced.

R&D and Innovation as the gateway to the future

“New age technologies and data are changing the lives of people and businesses. They are also enabling new economic opportunities and facilitating provision of high-quality services at affordable prices for all, including those at ‘bottom of the pyramid’. Opportunities for India at the global level are expanding. India is showing solutions through innovation and entrepreneurship of its people,” Sitharaman mentioned.

“Prime Minister Shastri gave the slogan of “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”. Prime Minister Vajpayee made that “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Jai Vigyan”. Prime Minister Modi has furthered that to “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Jai Vigyan and Jai Anusandhan”, as innovation is the foundation of development,” she added.

“For our tech savvy youth, this will be a golden era.  A corpus of rupeesone lakh crore will be established with fifty-year interest free loan. The corpus will provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or nil interest rates. This will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains. We need to have programmes that combine the powers of our youth and technology,” she concluded.