In a host of announcements, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman wanted to pull out the country's economy from a creaking financial system, generate more employment opportunities, and ramp up healthcare by prioritizing vaccination for all.

 

 

India's ambitious Budget 2021 had something for everyone. But, infrastructure and healthcare turned out to be the biggest winners. The allocation for the defense sector too wasn't any lesser. In a host of announcements, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sought to pull out the country's economy from a creaking financial system, generate more employment opportunities, and ramp up healthcare by prioritizing vaccination for all. There were quite a few firsts during the presentation of the 2021-22 Union Budget in the Lok Sabha. For the first time, the budget went paperless and members were provided soft copies of the speech and documents. The 110-minute speech was her shortest.

 

BUDGET DAY FULL COVERAGE

 

Healthcare

 

There is a substantial increase in investment in Health Infrastructure and the Budget outlay for Health and wellbeing is Rs a pair of,23,846 crores in BE 2021-22 as against this year’s BE of Rs 94,452 crore, a rise of 137 %.

 

PM Aatma Nirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana will also be launched with an outlay of Rs 64, 180 large integers over 6 years. this will develop capacities of primary, secondary, and tertiary care Health Systems, strengthen existing national institutions and create new establishments, to cater to the detection and cure of new and emerging diseases. this can be in addition to the National Health Mission.

 

Vaccines

 

Provision of Rs 35,000 crore made for Covid-19 vaccine in BE 2021-22. The Pneumococcal Vaccine, a Made in India product, presently limited to only 5 states, will be rolled out across the country aimed at averting 50,000 child deaths annually.

 

Nutrition

 

To strengthen nutritionary content, delivery, outreach, and outcome, Government will merge the Supplementary Nutrition Programme and the Poshan Abhiyan and launch the Mission Poshan 2.0. the government can adopt an associate intense strategy to boost nutritional outcomes across 112 Aspirational Districts.

 

Water Supply and Swachch Bharat Mission

 

The finance minister announced that the Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban), will be launched for universal water supply in all four,378 Urban local Bodies with 2.86 large integer household tap connections, as well as liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities. It will be implemented over 5 years, with an outlay of Rs. 2,87,000 crore. Moreover, the Urban Swachh Bharat Mission will be implemented with a total financial allocation of Rs 1,41,678 crore over a period of 5 years from 2021-2026.

 

Vehicle scrapping policy

 

Also to tackle the burgeoning problem of air pollution, the government proposed to provide an amount of Rs. 2,217 crore for 42 urban centers with a million-plus population in this budget. A voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old and unfit vehicles was also announced. Fitness tests have been proposed in automated fitness centers after 20 years in the case of personal vehicles, and after 15 years in the case of commercial vehicles.

 

 

Physical and Financial Capital and Infrastructure

 

PLI schemes to create manufacturing global champions for an Aatma Nirbhar Bharat have been announced for 13 sectors. For this, the government has committed nearly Rs.1.97 lakh crore in the next 5 years starting FY 2021-22. This initiative will help bring scale and size in key sectors, create and nurture global champions and provide jobs to our youth.

 

Textiles

 

To enable the textile industry to become globally competitive, attract giant investments, and boost employment generation, a scheme of Mega Investment Textiles Parks (MITRA) is launched in addition to the PLI scheme. this can produce world-class infrastructure with plug and play facilities to alter create world champions in exports. 7 Textile Parks are established over 3 years.

 

Infrastructure

 

A Bill to set up a Development financial institution (DFI) will be introduced. the government has provided a sum of Rs 20,000 crore to capitalize this and the and therefore the ambition is to possess a disposition portfolio of at least Rs 5 lakh crore for this DFI in three years' time.

 

Asset Monetisation

 

National Highways Authority of India and PGCIL each have sponsored one InvIT that will attract international and domestic institutional investors. five operational roads with AN estimated enterprise value of Rs 5,000 crore are being transferred to the NHAIInvIT. Similarly, transmission assets of a price of Rs seven,000 crore are transferred to the PGCIL InvIT. Railways can monetize Dedicated Freight corridor assets for operations and maintenance, once empowerment. the next heap of Airports will be monetized for operations and management concession.

 

Roads and Highways Infrastructure

 

More than 13,000 km length of roads, at a value of Rs 3.3 lakh crore, has already been awarded under the Rs. 5.35 lakh large integer Bharatmala Pariyojana project of that 3,800 km has been created. By March 2022, the Government would be awarding another 8,500 km and complete a further 11,000 km of national main road corridors. To more augment road infrastructure, more economic corridors are being planned. Sitharaman also provided AN an increased outlay of Rs. 1,18,101 large integer crore for Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, of that Rs.1,08,230 crore is for capital, the highest ever.

 

 

Railway Infrastructure

 

The budget provided a record sum of Rs. 1,10,055 crore, for Railways of which Rs. 1,07,100 crore is for capital expenditure. Indian Railways have prepared a National Rail Plan for India – 2030. The Plan is to create a ‘future-ready’ Railway system by 2030. It is expected that Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and Eastern DFC will be commissioned by June 2022. To give a better travel experience to passengers, the government has proposed the introduction of an aesthetically designed Vista Dome LHB coach on tourist routes. High-density network and highly utilized network routes of Indian Railways will be provided with an indigenously developed automatic train protection system that eliminates train collision due to human error.