Page 26 - NIS English February 16-28

Interview
Nirmala Sitharaman
This Government is
making long term
policies. It is working for
betterment and is going ahead.
This has to be ensured.
underway to benchmark skill qualifications,
assessment, and certification, accompanied
by the deployment of certified workforce.
We also have a collaborative Training Inter
Training Programme (TITP) with Japan to
facilitate transfer of Japanese industrial and
vocational skills, technique and knowledge.
We will take forward this initiative with many
more countries.
We would be introducing a Legislation this
year to implement the Higher Education
Commission of India. It will be an umbrella body
having 4 separate vehicles for standard-setting,
accreditation, regulation, and funding. Many of
our cities have various research institutions,
universities and colleges supported by the
Government. In nine such cities, we will create
formal umbrella structures so that these
institutions can have better synergy, while
also retaining their internal autonomy. A Glue
Grant will be set aside for this purpose. For
accessible higher education in Ladakh, the
Government has proposed to set up a Central
University in Leh.
The MSME sector was badly hit during the
Coronavirus pandemic after which help was
provided to the sector. What is special for the
sector in this Budget?
We have taken a number of steps to support the
MSME sector. In this Budget, I have provided
Rs 15,700 Crore to this sector, more than
double of this year’s BE. We have announced
rationalisation of custom duty on a number of
items.
24 New India Samachar
You are the first woman to be appointed
as first the Defence Minister and now
the Finance Minister of the country.
What is there for women of New India
in the Budget?
Ujjwala Scheme, which has benefitted
eight Crore households, will now be
extended to cover one Crore additional
beneficiaries. Women will be allowed
to work in all categories with adequate
protection even in the night-shifts.
We have proposed to provide Rs
1,000 Crore for the welfare of tea
workers, especially women and their
children in Assam and West Bengal.
Also, to further facilitate credit flow
under the Stand Up India scheme, we
have proposed to reduce the margin
money requirement from 25 per cent
to 15 per cent.
‘Ease of living’ through policy reforms
has been the Government’s mantra. What
reforms have been introduced in the Budget
and what will be their impact?
The Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban) will be
launched. It aims for universal water supply in
all 4,378 Urban Local Bodies with 2.86 Crore
household tap connections, as well as liquid
waste management in 500 AMRUT cities. It
will be implemented over five years, with an
outlay of Rs 2,87,000 Crore.
The Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 will be
implemented with a total financial allocation
of Rs 1,41,678 Crore over a period of five years
from 2021-2026. To tackle the intensifying
problem of air pollution, the Budget has
proposed to provide an amount of Rs 2,217
Crore for 42 urban centres with a Million-plus
population in this Budget.
In addition to all this, we will also add 100 more
districts to the City Gas Distribution network in