Page 13 - NIS English February 16-28

Budget 2 21
I a a a a ee oa t e tea o e g
ea t e t att e aga t Co o a, et e
t t e e o e ta e g t e Co o a
e o o t e e o t o o Aat aN a B a at
I o e to ta e o a t oa t e e , t e e
o ea t t to a ’ get
P e M te Na e a Mo
Railways have prepared a National Rail Plan for
India – 2030. The Plan is to create a ‘future ready’
Railway system by 2030. Budget also provided a
record sum of Rs 1,10,055 Crore for Railways of
which Rs 1,07,100 Crore is for capital expenditure.
Metro trains will be introduced in smaller cities.
More focus will be laid on green energy. The
aim is to ensure piped gas supply to over 100
cities in the next three years. Along with this, a
comprehensive Hydrogen Energy Mission will be
launched in 2021-22.
For India to become a $5 Trillion economy, the
country’s manufacturing sector has to grow in
double digits on a sustained basis. To achieve
this, Finance Minister announced Production
Linked Incentive schemes for 13 sectors to
create manufacturing global champions for an
AatmaNirbhar Bharat. For this, the Government
has committed nearly Rs 1.97 Lakh Crore in the
next 5 years.
INCLUSIVE GROWTH FOR VILLAGES,
FARMERS AND LABOURERS
Farmers, labourer, rural India, agriculture and
allied activities have a special mention in this
Budget. In order to ensure inclusive development
of agriculture sector, the agricultural credit target
is enhanced to Rs 16.5 Lakh Crore in FY22, with
focus on credit flow to animal husbandry, dairy,
and fisheries. There are provisions for easy
loans to farmers and strengthening the markets.
The Budget also proposed to integrate 1,000
more mandis with e-NAM to bring transparency
and competitiveness. SWAMITVA Scheme will
Union
be extended to cover all States and Union
Territories.
For migrants and labourers, the Government
has launched the One Nation, One Ration
Card scheme through which beneficiaries can
claim their ration anywhere in the country.
Implementation of four labour codes has
also been done. To further facilitate credit
flow under the scheme of Stand Up India for
SCs, STs, and women, the Finance Minister
proposed to reduce the margin money
requirement from 25 per cent to 15 per cent.
Moreover, a number of steps were taken to
support the MSME sector. The Government
has provided Rs 15,700 Crore to this sector –
more than double of 2020-21.
PROGRESS IN EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
Quality education plays an important role in
development of a society. The Budget has
special provisions for education and research
sectors. It proposes qualitative strengthening
of 15,000 schools to include all components
of National Education Policy, opening 100
new Sainik Schools and 750 Eklavya Model
Residential schools. There is also a proposal
to set up a Higher Education Commission of
India as an umbrella body having 4 separate
vehicles for standard setting, accreditation,
regulation, and funding. The National
Education Policy speaks about setting up of
the National Research Foundation (NRF) to
strengthen overall research ecosystem with
focus on national-priority thrust areas. For
this, an outlay of Rs 50,000 Crore for 5 years
has been proposed.
Under Minimum Government and Maximum
Governance, the Budget seeks to reduce
compliance burden on senior citizens who
are 75 years of age and above. Those senior
citizens having only pension and interest
income will be exempted from filing their
income tax return. Corporate tax rate is slashed
to make it among the lowest in the world.
New India Samachar 11