This Budget gives priority to the deprived: PM

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The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi remarked that the first budget in the Amrit Kaal of India has established a strong base to fulfill the aspirations and resolutions of a developed India. He said that this budget gives priority to the deprived and strives to fulfill the dreams of the aspirational society, the poor, villages and the middle class.

He congratulated the Finance Minister and her team for a historic Budget. The Prime Minister termed the traditional artisans like carpenters, lohar (ironsmiths) Sunar (goldsmiths), Kumhars (potters), sculptors and many others as the creator of the nation. “For the first time, the country has come up with many schemes as a tribute to the hard work and creation of these people. Arrangements have been made for training, credit and market support for them. PM Vishwakarma Kaushal Samman i.e. PM ViKaS will bring a big change in the lives of crores of Vishwakarmas” the Prime Minister said.

From women living in the cities to villages, employed to homemakers, the Prime Minister informed that the government has taken significant steps such as Jal Jeevan Mission, Ujjwala Yojna and PM Awas Yojana etc. that will further empower the welfare of women. He emphasized that miracles can be performed if Women Self Help Groups, which is a sector with extreme potential, is further strengthened. Underlining that a new dimension has been added to Women Self Help Groups in the new budget with the introduction of a new special savings scheme for women, the Prime Minister said that it will strengthen women especially the homemaker from common families.

This Budget, the Prime Minister said, will make cooperatives a fulcrum of the development of the rural economy. The government, he continued,  has made the world’s largest food storage scheme in the co-operative sector. An ambitious scheme to form new primary co-operatives has also been announced in the budget. This will expand the area of ​​milk and fish production along with farming, farmers, animal husbandry and fishermen will get better prices for their produce.

Emphasizing the need to replicate the success of digital payments in the agriculture sector, the Prime Minister said that this budget comes with a big plan for digital agriculture infrastructure.

He informed that the world is celebrating the International Year of Millets and noted that there are many types of millets in India with multiple names. The Prime Minister said that special recognition of millets is necessary when it is reaching households all over the world. “This superfood has been given a new identity of Shree-Anna.”, the Prime Minister said as he underlined that small farmers and tribal farmers of the country will get economic support along with a healthy life for the citizens of the country.

This budget, Shri Modi continued, will give an unprecedented expansion to Green Growth, Green Economy, Green Infrastructure, and Green Jobs for a Sustainable Future. “In the budget, we have laid a lot of emphasis on technology and the new economy. Aspirational India of today wants modern infrastructure in every field like road, rail, metro, port, and waterways. Compared to 2014, investment in infrastructure has increased by more than 400 percent”, the Prime Minister said as he underlined the unprecedented investment of ten lakh crores on infrastructure that will give new energy and speed to India’s development. He informed that these investments will create new employment opportunities for the youth, thereby providing new income opportunities to a large population.

The Prime Minister also touched upon the Ease of Doing Business which is taken forward through the campaign of credit support and reforms for industries. “An additional loan guarantee of Rs 2 lakh crore has been arranged for MSMEs”, the Prime Minister informed as he noted that increasing the limit of presumptive tax will help MSMEs to grow. He also added that a new arrangement has been made for timely payments by big companies to MSMEs.

The Prime Minister underlined the potential of the middle class in realizing the dreams of 2047. The Prime Minister informed that in order to empower the middle class, the government has taken many significant decisions in the past years that have ensured Ease of Living. He highlighted the reduction in tax rates as well as the simplification, transparency and speeding up of the processes. “Our government that always stood with the middle class has given huge tax relief to them”, the Prime Minister concluded.

Press Statement by BJP National President on Union Budget 2023-24

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Press Statement issued by BJP National President, Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda on Union Budget 2023-24

  • The first General Budget of India’s Amrit Kaal is a public welfare and pro poor Budget. It is Budget that will empower and uplift the lives of villagers, rural folks, Dalits, tribals, farmers, backward and oppressed classes, differently abled people and those who are economically backward. It is a blueprint for India’s rapid growth and development which will ensure holistic progress of the country particularly rural development, agriculture development, labourers’ welfare, infrastructure development, digital infrastructure development, and development of Northeast and hilly regions of our country.
  • This General Budget under the leadership and guidance of our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji is the Budget that will promote social justice, equality and provide equal opportunities to all sections of our society. This is a budget with emphasis on education of children, earning of the middle class and welfare of the elderly.
  • On behalf of the people of the country and crores of the Bharatiya Janata Party workers, I thank and congratulate our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji and Union Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman and her entire team for giving a Budget which touches the lives of every Indian, which takes care of welfare of all sections of our society.
  • Economic agenda for our vision focuses on facilitating opportunities for citizens, providing strong impetus to growth and job creation and strengthening macroeconomic stability This Budget lists 7 priorities – the Saptrishi — which are holistic and inclusive development, last mile delivery, development of basic infrastructure and investment, harness capabilities, green development, youth development and financial consolidation.
  • In this Budget, our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji has taken a historical step which is a big gift to the salaried class in the country. Now the salaried class will not have to give tax on income up to Rs 7 lakhs. Also, the tax slab has been reduced to Rs 5 lakhs. I thank our Hon’ble Prime Minister for taking this important decision for the middle class and salaried class.
  • The decision of the Narendra Modi Government to start the PMPGTB development mission to ensure growth and development of the backward and tribal groups shows our government’s seriousness and commitment towards the development of Tribal communities. A corpus of Rs 15,000 crores have been instituted to give basic facilities in PBTG colonies.
  • The step to establish the National Digital Library for youth and children is a welcome step. In the next 3 years in 740 Eklavya Model schools 38,800 teachers and support staff will be appointed. I welcome this step.
  • I also thank the Narendra Modi Government for its deep focus towards development and growth of dairy, animal husbandry and fisheries sectors for which the target of providing loans has been increased to Rs 20 lakh crores. In the next three years over 1 crore farmers will be helped in natural farming. For this 10,000 bio input resource centres will be set up. All these are major initiatives that will spur growth and development of our agriculture sector. 
  • To give wings to the aspirations and dreams of our youths the PM Kaushal Vikas Yojna 4.0 has introduced ammo which is a welcome step. Under this scheme 40 Skill India Centres will be opened across the country which will sharpen skills of our youths and open new opportunities for them.
  • I also welcome the decision of the Narendra Modi Government to launch the Mahila Samman Vikas Patra. It will give women 7.5% interest on the savings of Rs 2 lakhs per year. Similarly the limit of keeping money in savings accounts for senior citizens has also been increased from Rs 4.5 lakhs to Rs 9 lakhs which is also highly appreciated. Also, the limit of Senior Citizen Savings Scheme has also been increased from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh. These schemes will prove to be major milestones towards the welfare of India’s women and senior citizens.
  • One of the major focuses of the General Budget 2023-24 is ‘Green Growth’. The Narendra Modi Government has allocated Rs 19,700 crore for the National Hydrogen Mission. The Bharatiya Janata Party government has kept the target of producing 50 lakh tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030. Similarly Rs 35000 crores fund has been given for energy transition. All these steps are in the right direction towards achieving our goal of “Green Environment”.
  • The General Budget has allocated Rs 2.40 lakh crore for the development and modernisation of the Indian railways, this allocation is 9 times more than the Congress led UPA government allocation of 2013-14. Similarly, the investment expenditure has been increased by 33% to touch Rs 10 lakh crores which will boost infrastructure development across the country. Interest free loans given to states have also been extended by 1 year and its corpus has also been hiked to Rs 1.30 lakh crores.
  • In the General Budget the corpus for the PM Awas Yojana has also been increased to Rs 69,000 crores. This shows the sensitivity of our Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji towards the poor and needy people.
  • Despite the Corona pandemic and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, India’s budget size has risen to Rs 45 lakh crores which clearly reflects the fast growing economy of our country.
  • 157 new nursing colleges will be established in core locations. A mission to eliminate sickle cell Anaemia by 2047 will be launched entailing awareness creation & universal screening of 7 cr. people in affected tribal areas. 50 additional airports, helipods, water aerodromes and advanced landing grounds to be revived for improving regional air connectivity.
  • MSME sector will be given credit guarantee worth Rs 9,000 crores. This will allow them Rs 2 lakh crores worth of extra collateral free credit. It will strengthen the domestic economy and create new employment opportunities.
  • In a nutshell, this General Budget envisages India’s growth and development 100 years post-Independence. It outlines the roadmap for growth, development and progress of all sections of our country particularly farmers, women, middle class and businesses. The Indian economy is on the right track and is moving towards a bright future. I once again thank and congratulate our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji and the Union Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman ji for this public and social welfare -oriented Budget.

 

SUMMARY OF THE UNION BUDGET 2023-24

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In the 75th year of India’s Independence, the World has recognized the Indian Economy as a ‘bright star’ as the Economic Growth is estimated at 7 per cent, which is the highest among all major economies, in spite of the massive global slowdown caused by COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine War. This was stated by Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Union Budget 2023-24 in Parliament today. She emphasized that Indian economy is on the right track, and despite a time of challenges, heading towards a bright future.

PART-A

Smt. Sitharaman said that this Budget hopes to build on the foundation laid in the previous Budget, and the blueprint drawn for India@100, which envisions a prosperous and inclusive India, where the fruits of development reach all regions and citizens, especially our youth, women, farmers, OBCs, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Resilience amidst multiple crises

The Finance Minister said that India’s rising global profile is due to several accomplishments like unique World Class Digital Public Infrastructure namely, Aadhaar, Co-Win and UPI; COVID-19 vaccination drive in unparalleled scale and speed; proactive role in frontier areas such as achieving the climate related goals, mission LiFE, and National Hydrogen Mission.

She said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, Government ensured that no one goes to bed hungry, with a scheme to supply free food grains to over 80 Crore  persons for 28 months. The Minister added that continuing with Centre’s commitment to ensure food and nutritional security, Government is implementing, from 1st January 2023, a scheme to supply free food grain to all Antyodaya and priority households for the next one year, under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). The entire expenditure of about Rs 2 lakh crore will be borne by the Central Government.

G20 Presidency: Steering the global agenda through challenges

The Finance Minister pointed out that in these times of global challenges; the G20 Presidency gives India a unique opportunity to strengthen its role in the world economic order. With the theme of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, India is steering an ambitious, people-centric agenda to address global challenges, and to facilitate sustainable economic development, she added.

Achievements since 2014: Leaving no one behind

Smt. Sitharaman said that the government’s efforts since 2014 have ensured for all citizens a better quality of living and a life of dignity and the per capita income has more than doubled to Rs 1.97 lakh. She said that in these nine 9 years, the Indian economy has increased in size from being 10th to 5th largest in the world. Moreover, the economy has become a lot more formalized as reflected in the EPFO membership, more than doubling to 27 crore, and 7,400 crore digital payments of Rs 126 lakh crore through UPI in 2022.

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The Finance Minister pointed out that the efficient implementation of many schemes, with universalisation of targeted benefits, has resulted in inclusive development and listed some of the schemes such as 11.7 crore household toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission, 9.6 crore LPG connections under Ujjawala, 220 crore Covid vaccinations of 102 crore persons, 47.8 crore PM Jan Dhan Bank Accounts, Insurance cover for 44.6 crore persons under PM Suraksha Bima and PM Jeevan Jyoti Yojana, and Cash transfer of Rs 2.2 lakh crore to over 11.4 crore farmers under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi.

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 Vision for Amrit Kaal – an empowered and inclusive economy

The Finance Minister said that our vision for the Amrit Kaal includes technology-driven and knowledge-based economy with strong public finances, and a robust financial sector and to achieve this, Jan Bhagidari through Sabka Saath Sabka Prayas is essential. She added that the economic agenda for achieving this vision focuses on three things and those are facilitating ample opportunities for citizens, especially the youth, to fulfill their aspirations, secondly, providing strong impetus to growth and job creation and finally to strengthen macro-economic stability. She added that to service these focus areas in our journey to India@100, the following four opportunities can be transformative during Amrit Kaal-

  1.  Economic Empowerment of Women: Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Rural Livelihood Mission has achieved remarkable success by mobilizing rural women into 81 lakh Self Help Groups and we will enable these groups to reach the next stage of economic empowerment through formation of large producer enterprises or collectives with each having several thousand members and managed professionally.
  2. PM VIshwakarma KAushal Samman (PM VIKAS): For centuries, traditional artisans and craftspeople, who work with their hands using tools, have brought renown for India and they are generally referred to as Vishwakarma. The art and handicraft created by them represents the true spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

The Finance Minister informed that for the first time, a package of assistance for them has been conceptualized and the new scheme will enable them to improve the quality, scale and reach of their products, integrating them with the MSME value chain. The components of the scheme will include not only financial support but also access to advanced skill training, knowledge of modern digital techniques and efficient green technologies, brand promotion, linkage with local and global markets, digital payments, and social security. This will greatly benefit the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs, women and people belonging to the weaker sections.

  1.  Tourism: The Finance Minister said that the country offers immense attraction for domestic as well as foreign tourists, as there is a large potential to be tapped in tourism. She added that the sector holds huge opportunities for jobs and entrepreneurship for youth in particular and emphasized that promotion of tourism will be taken up on mission mode, with active participation of states, convergence of government programmes and public-private partnerships.
  2. Green Growth: Dwelling on the subject of Green Growth, the FM said that India is implementing many programmes for green fuel, green energy, green farming, green mobility, green buildings, and green equipment, and policies for efficient use of energy across various economic sectors. These green growth efforts help in reducing carbon intensity of the economy and provides for largescale green job opportunities, she added.

Priorities of this Budget

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman listed seven priorities of the Union Budget and said that they complement each other and act as the ‘Saptarishi’ guiding us through the Amrit Kaal. They are as follows: 1) Inclusive Development 2) Reaching the Last Mile 3) Infrastructure and Investment 4) Unleashing the Potential 5) Green Growth 6) Youth Power 7) Financial Sector

 

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Priority 1: Inclusive Development

The Government’s philosophy of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas has facilitated inclusive development covering in specific, farmers, women, youth, OBCs, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, divyangjan and economically weaker sections, and overall priority for the underprivileged (vanchiton ko variyata). There has also been a sustained focus on Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and the North-East. This Budget builds on those efforts.

 

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Agriculture and Cooperation

Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture

The Finance Minister said that the Digital Public infrastructure for agriculture will be built as an open source, open standard and inter operable public good.  She said, this will enable inclusive, farmer-centric solutions through relevant information services for crop planning and health, improved access to farm inputs, credit, and insurance, help for crop estimation, market intelligence, and support for growth of agri-tech industry and start-ups.

Agriculture Accelerator Fund

The FM announces that an Agriculture Accelerator Fund will be set-up to encourage agri-startups by young entrepreneurs in rural areas, which will aim at bringing innovative and affordable solutions for challenges faced by farmers. It will also bring in modern technologies to transform agricultural practices, increase productivity and profitability.

Enhancing productivity of cotton crop

To enhance the productivity of extra-long staple cotton, Government will adopt a cluster-based and value chain approach through Public Private Partnerships (PPP). This will mean collaboration between farmers, state and industry for input supplies, extension services, and market linkages.

Atmanirbhar Horticulture Clean Plant Programme

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the Government will launch an Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Programme to boost availability of disease-free, quality planting material for high value horticultural crops at an outlay of  Rs  2,200 crore.

Global Hub for Millets: ‘Shree Anna’

Smt. Sitharaman quoted Prime Minister as saying, “India is at the forefront of popularizing Millets, whose consumption furthers nutrition, food security and welfare of farmers”. She said that India is the largest producer and second largest exporter of ‘Shree Anna’ in the world as it grows several types of ‘Shree Anna’ such as jowar, ragi, bajra, kuttu, ramdana, kangni, kutki, kodo, cheena, and sama.

She mentioned that these have a number of health benefits, and have been an integral part of our food for centuries and acknowledged with pride that the huge service done by small farmers in contributing to the health of fellow citizens by growing these ‘Shree Anna’.  She added that to make India a global hub for ‘Shree Anna’, the Indian Institute of Millet Research, Hyderabad will be supported as the Centre of Excellence for sharing best practices, research and technologies at the international level.

Agriculture Credit

Dwelling on welfare measures for farmers, the Finance Minister announced that the agriculture credit target will be increased to Rs 20 lakh crore with focus on animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries.

She informed that the Government will launch a new sub-scheme of PM Matsya Sampada Yojana with targeted investment of  Rs 6,000 crore to further enable activities of fishermen, fish vendors, and micro & small enterprises, improve value chain efficiencies, and expand the market.

Cooperation

For farmers, especially small and marginal farmers, and other marginalized sections, the government is promoting cooperative-based economic development model. A new Ministry of Cooperation was formed with a mandate to realize the vision of ‘Sahakar Se Samriddhi’. To realise this vision, the government has already initiated computerization of 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) with an investment of Rs 2,516 crore.

In consultation with all stakeholders and states, model bye-laws for PACS were formulated enabling them to become multipurpose PACS. A national cooperative database is being prepared for country-wide mapping of cooperative societies.

Smt. Sitharaman said that Government will implement a plan to set up massive decentralized storage capacity, which will help farmers store their produce and realize remunerative prices through sale at appropriate times. The government will also facilitate setting up of a large number of multipurpose cooperative societies, primary fishery societies and dairy cooperative societies in uncovered panchayats and villages in the next 5 years.

Health, Education and Skilling

Medical & Nursing Colleges

The Finance Minister announced that one hundred and fifty-seven new nursing colleges will be established in co-location with the existing 157 medical colleges established since 2014. She also informed that a Mission to eliminate Sickle Cell Anaemia by 2047 will be launched, which will entail awareness creation, universal screening of 7 crore people in the age group of 0-40 years in affected tribal areas, and counseling through collaborative efforts of central ministries and state governments. On Medical Research, she said that facilities in select ICMR Labs will be made available for research by public and private medical college faculty and private sector R&D teams for encouraging collaborative research and innovation.

 

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Dwelling on the subject of Pharma Innovation, the Finance Minister informed that a new programme to promote research and innovation in pharmaceuticals will be taken up through centers of excellence. She said that the Government will also encourage industry to invest in research and development in specific priority areas.

 Teachers’ Training

Smt. Sitharaman said that Teachers’ training will be re-envisioned through innovative pedagogy, curriculum transaction, continuous professional development, dipstick surveys, and ICT implementation. She added that the District Institutes of Education and Training will be developed as vibrant institutes of excellence for this purpose.

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She also informed that a National Digital Library for Children and Adolescents will be set-up for facilitating availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres and levels, and device agnostic accessibility. States will be encouraged to set up physical libraries for them at panchayat and ward levels and provide infrastructure for accessing the National Digital Library resources.

Additionally, to build a culture of reading, and to make up for pandemic-time learning loss, the National Book Trust, Children’s Book Trust and other sources will be encouraged to provide and replenish non-curricular titles in regional languages and English to these physical libraries.

Priority 2: Reaching the Last Mile

The Finance Minister said that Prime Minister Vajpayee’s government had formed the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Department of Development of North-Eastern Region to provide a sharper focus to the objective of ‘reaching the last mile’. She said that Modi Government has formed the ministries of AYUSH, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Skill Development, Jal Shakti and Cooperation.

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Aspirational Districts and Blocks Programme

Smt. Sitharaman informed that building on the success of the Aspirational Districts Programme, the Government has recently launched the Aspirational Blocks Programme covering 500 blocks for saturation of essential government services across multiple domains such as health, nutrition, education, agriculture, water resources, financial inclusion, skill development, and basic infrastructure.

Pradhan Mantri PVTG Development Mission

 The Finance Minister said that to improve socio-economic conditions of the particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs), Pradhan Mantri PVTG Development Mission will be launched. This will saturate PVTG families and habitations with basic facilities such as safe housing, clean drinking water and sanitation, improved access to education, health and nutrition, road and telecom connectivity, and sustainable livelihood opportunities. An amount of  Rs 15,000 crore will be made available to implement the Mission in the next three years under the Development Action Plan for the Scheduled Tribes. Smt.  Sitharaman announced that in the next three years, centre will recruit 38,800 teachers and support staff for the 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools, serving 3.5 lakh tribal students.

Water for Drought Prone Region

The Finance Minister said that in the drought prone central region of Karnataka, central assistance of Rs 5,300 crore will be given to Upper Bhadra Project to provide sustainable micro irrigation and filling up of surface tanks for drinking water.

PM Awas Yojana

In an important announcement, the Finance Minister said that the outlay for PM Awas Yojana is being enhanced by 66 per cent to over Rs 79,000 crore.

‘Bharat Shared Repository of Inscriptions’ will be set up in a digital epigraphy museum, with digitization of one lakh ancient inscriptions in the first stage.

Priority 3: Infrastructure & Investment

Smt.  Sitharaman said, investments in Infrastructure and productive capacity have a large multiplier impact on growth and employment and in view of this capital investment outlay is being increased steeply for the third year in a row by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore, which would be 3.3 per cent of GDP. She said that this will be almost three times the outlay in 2019-20.  The ‘Effective Capital Expenditure’ of the Centre is budgeted at Rs 13.7 lakh crore, which will be 4.5 per cent of GDP.

 

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Support to State Governments for Capital Investment

The Finance Minister informed that the Government has decided to continue the 50-year interest free loan to state governments for one more year to spur investment in infrastructure and to incentivize them for complementary policy actions, with a significantly enhanced outlay of  Rs 1.3 lakh crore.

Railways

The Finance Minister announced that a capital outlay of Rs 2.40 lakh crore has been provided for the Railways, which is the highest ever outlay  and  about 9 times the outlay made in 2013- 14.

She also informed that one hundred critical transport infrastructure projects, for last and first mile connectivity for ports, coal, steel, fertilizer, and food grains sectors have been identified and they will be taken up on priority with investment of Rs 75,000 crore, including  Rs 15,000 crore from private sources.

Smt. Sitharaman said that fifty additional airports, heliports, water aerodromes and advance landing grounds will be revived for improving regional air connectivity.

The Finance Minister announced that  an Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF) will be established through use of priority sector lending shortfall, which will be managed by the National Housing Bank, and will be used by public agencies to create urban infrastructure in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. She said that States will be encouraged to leverage resources from the grants of the 15th Finance Commission, as well as existing schemes, to adopt appropriate user charges while accessing the UIDF.

Smt. Sitharaman said that Government will make available Rs 10,000 crore per annum for this purpose.

Priority 4: Unleashing the Potential

The Finance Minister said that for enhancing ease of doing business, more than 39,000 compliances have been reduced and more than 3,400 legal provisions have been decriminalized. She added that for furthering the trustbased governance, Government has introduced the Jan Vishwas Bill to amend 42 Central Acts.

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Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence

The Finance Minister said that for realizing the vision of “Make A-I in India and Make A-I work for India”, three centers of excellence for Artificial Intelligence will be set-up in top educational institutions. Leading industry players will partner in conducting interdisciplinary research, develop cutting-edge applications and scalable problem solutions in the areas of agriculture, health, and sustainable cities, which will galvanize an effective A-I ecosystem and nurture quality human resources in the field.

National Data Governance Policy.

The FM said that to unleash innovation and research by start-ups and academia, a National Data Governance Policy will be brought out, which will enable access to anonymized data.

She also announced that An Entity DigiLocker will be set up for use by MSMEs, large business and charitable trusts for storing and sharing documents online securely, whenever needed, with various authorities, regulators, banks and other business entities.

On 5G Services, she announced that one hundred labs for developing applications using 5G services will be set up in engineering institutions to realize a new range of opportunities, business models, and employment potential. The labs will cover, among others, applications such as smart classrooms, precision farming, intelligent transport systems, and health care applications.

Priority 5: Green Growth

Smt.  Sitharaman said that  Prime Minister has given a vision for “LiFE”, or Lifestyle for Environment, to spur a movement of environmentally conscious lifestyle. India is moving forward firmly for the ‘panchamrit’ and net-zero carbon emission by 2070 to usher in green industrial and economic transition.

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She said, this Budget builds on the focus on green growth. The recently launched National Green Hydrogen Mission, with an outlay of Rs 19,700 crores, will facilitate transition of the economy to low carbon intensity, reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports, and make the country assume technology and market leadership in this sunrise sector. The target is to reach an annual production of 5 MMT by 2030.

The Budget also provides Rs35,000 crore for priority capital investments towards energy transition and net zero objectives, and energy security by Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.

The Finance Minister said that to steer the economy on the sustainable development path, Battery Energy Storage Systems with capacity of 4,000 MWH will be supported with Viability Gap Funding.

She also informed that the Inter-state transmission system for evacuation and grid integration of 13 GW renewable energy from Ladakh will be constructed with investment of  Rs 20,700 crore including central support of Rs 8,300 crore.

 GOBARdhan scheme

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman announced that 500 new ‘waste to wealth’ plants under GOBARdhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme will be established for promoting circular economy. These will include 200 compressed biogas (CBG) plants, including 75 plants in urban areas, and 300 community or cluster-based plants at total investment of  Rs 10,000 crore.

She said, in due course, a 5 per cent CBG mandate will be introduced for all organizations marketing natural and bio gas and for collection of bio-mass and distribution of bio-manure, appropriate fiscal support will be provided.

Bhartiya Prakritik Kheti Bio-Input Resource Centres

The Finance Minister announced that over the next 3 years, the Centre will facilitate one crore farmers to adopt natural farming. For this, 10,000 Bio-Input Resource Centres will be set-up, creating a national-level distributed micro-fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing network.

The Finance Minister said that in furtherance of the vehicle scrapping policy mentioned in Budget 2021-22, she has allocated adequate funds to scrap old vehicles of the Central Government and States will also be supported in replacing old vehicles and ambulances.

Priority 6: Youth Power

The Finance Minister said that to empower the youth and help the ‘Amrit Peedhi’ realize their dreams, Government has formulated the National Education Policy, focused on skilling, adopted economic policies that facilitate job creation at scale, and have supported business opportunities.

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She also announced that Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 will be launched to skill lakhs of youth within the next three years. On-job training, industry partnership, and alignment of courses with needs of industry will be emphasized. The scheme will also cover new age courses for Industry 4.0 like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills.

She also announced that to skill youth for international opportunities, 30 Skill India International Centres will be set up across different States.

National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman said that to provide stipend support to 47 lakh youth in three years, Direct Benefit Transfer under a pan-India National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme will be rolled out.

 Unity Mall

The FM said that States will be encouraged to set up a Unity Mall in their state capital or most prominent tourism centre or the financial capital for promotion and sale of their own ODOPs (one district, one product), GI products and other handicraft products, and for providing space for such products of all other States.

Priority 7: Financial Sector

Credit Guarantee for MSMEs

The Finance Minster said that last year, she proposed revamping of the credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs and announced happily  that the revamped scheme will take effect from 1st April 2023 through infusion of  Rs 9,000 crore in the corpus. This will enable additional collateral-free guaranteed credit of Rs 2 lakh crore. Further, the cost of the credit will be reduced by about 1 per cent.

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Smt. Sitharaman said that a National Financial Information Registry will be set up to serve as the central repository of financial and ancillary information. This will facilitate efficient flow of credit, promote financial inclusion, and foster financial stability. A new legislative framework will govern this credit public infrastructure, and it will be designed in consultation with the RBI.

She also announced that a Central Processing Centre will be setup for faster response to companies through centralized handling of various forms filed with field offices under the Companies Act.

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For commemorating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, a one-time new small savings scheme, Mahila Samman Savings Certificate, will be made available for a two-year period up to March 2025. This will offer deposit facility upto Rs 2 lakh in the name of women or girls for a tenor of 2 years at fixed interest rate of 7.5 per cent with partial withdrawal option.

Senior Citizens

The Finance Minister announced that the maximum deposit limit for Senior Citizen Savings Scheme will be enhanced from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh.

Also, the maximum deposit limit for Monthly Income Account Scheme will be enhanced from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh for single account and from Rs 9 lakh to  Rs 15 lakh for joint account.

Fiscal Management

Fifty-year interest free loan to States

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman said that the entire fifty-year loan to states has to be spent on capital expenditure within 2023-24. Most of this will be at the discretion of states, but a part will be conditional on states increasing their actual capital expenditure. She said, parts of the outlay will also be linked to, or allocated for, the following purposes: like Scrapping old government vehicles, Urban planning reforms and actions, Financing reforms in urban local bodies to make them, creditworthy for municipal bonds, Housing for police personnel above or as part of police stations, Constructing Unity Malls,  Children and adolescents’ libraries and digital infrastructure and  State share of capital expenditure of central schemes.

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The Revised Estimate of the total receipts other than borrowings is Rs 24.3 lakh crore, of which the net tax receipts are Rs 20.9 lakh crore. The Revised Estimate of the total expenditure is Rs 41.9 lakh crore, of which the capital expenditure is about Rs 7.3 lakh crore. Similarly, the Revised Estimate of the fiscal deficit is 6.4 per cent of GDP, adhering to the Budget Estimate.

 Budget Estimates 2023-24

Concluding the Part-One of the General Budget, Ms Nirmala Sitharaman said that  the total receipts other than borrowings and the total expenditure are estimated at  Rs 27.2 lakh crore and  Rs 45 lakh crore respectively. The net tax receipts are estimated at Rs 23.3 lakh crore.

The fiscal deficit is estimated to be 5.9 per cent of GDP.

 

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She said that in her Budget Speech for 2021-22, she had announced that Government plans to continue the path of fiscal consolidation, reaching a fiscal deficit below 4.5 per cent by 2025-26 with a fairly steady decline over the period. She said that the Government has adhered to this path, and reiterated to bring the fiscal deficit below 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26.

Smt. Sitharaman said, to finance the fiscal deficit in 2023-24, the net market borrowings from dated securities are estimated at Rs11.8 lakh crore. The balance financing is expected to come from small savings and other sources. The gross market borrowings are estimated at Rs 15.4 lakh crore.

Part B

Smt Nirmala Sitharaman provides major relief in the personal income tax. The indirect tax proposals contained in the budget aim to promote exports enhance domestic value addition, encourage green energy and mobility.

Personal Income Tax

There are five major announcements relating to the personal income tax. The rebate limit in the new tax regime has been increased to ₹ 7 lakh, meaning that peons in the new tax regime with income upto ₹ 7 lakh will not have to pay any tax. The tax structure in the new personal tax regime has been changed by reducing number of slabs to five and increasing the tax exemption limit to ₹ 3 lakh. This will provide major relief to all tax payers in the new regime.

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The benefit of standard deduction has been extended to the salaried class and the pensioners including family pensioner under the new tax regime. Salaried individual will get standard deduction of ₹ 50,000 and pensioner ₹ 15,000 as per the proposal. Each salaried person with an income of ₹ 15.5 lakh or more will thus gain ₹ 52,500, from the above proposals.

The highest surcharge rate in personal income tax has been reduced from 37% to 25% in the new tax regime for income above ₹2 crore. This would result in maximum tax rate of personal income tax come down to 39% which was earlier 42.74%.

The limit of tax exemption on leave encashment on retirement of non-government salaried employees has been increased from ₹3 lakh to ₹25 lakh.

The new income tax regime has been made the default tax regime. However, the citizens will continue to have the option to avail the benefit of the old tax regime.

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Indirect Tax Proposals

The indirect tax proposals announced in the budget by the Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman emphasized on simplification of tax structure with fewer tax rates so as to help in reducing compliance burden and improving tax administration. The number of basic customs duty rates on goods, other than textiles and agriculture, has been reduced from 21 to 13. There are minor changes in the basic customs duties, cesses and surcharges on items including toys, bicycles, automobiles and naphtha.

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To avoid cascading of taxes on blended compressed natural gas, excise duty on GST-paid compressed bio-gas contained in it has been exempted from excise duty. Customs duty exemption has been extended to import of capital goods and machinery required for manufacture of lithium-ion cells for batteries used in electric vehicles.

To further deepen domestic value addition in manufacture of mobile phones, the Finance Minister announced relief in customs duty on import of certain parts and inputs like camera lens. The concessional duty on lithium-ion cells for batteries will continue for another year. Basic customs duty on parts of open cells of TV panels has been reduced to 2.5%. The Budget also proposes changes in the basic customs duty to rectify inversion of duty structure and encourage manufacturing of electrical kitchen chimneys.

Denatured ethyl alcohol has been exempted from basic customs duty. Basic customs duty has also been reduced on acid grade fluorspar and crude glycerin. Duty is being reduced on key inputs for domestic manufacture of shrimp feed. Basic customs duty on seeds used in the manufacture of Lab Grown Diamonds has also been reduced. The import duty on silver dore, bars and articles has been increased to align them with that on gold and platinum. The basic customs duty rate on compounded rubber has been increased. National Calamity Contingent Duty on specified cigarettes has been revised upwards by about 16%. The basic customs duty on crude glycerin for use in manufacture of epicholorhydrin is proposed to be reduced from 7.5% to 2.5%.

Common IT Return Form

The Union Budget also proposes to roll out a next-generation common IT return form for tax payer convenience. It also stipulates a plan to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism for direct taxes. The Finance Minister also announced deployment of about 100 Joint Commissioners for disposals of small appeals in direct tax matters. She also said that the department will be more selective in taking up cases for scrutiny of returns already received this year.

Better targeting of tax concessions

For better targeting of tax concessions and exemptions, deduction from capital gains on investment in residential house has been capped at ₹ 10 crore. Income tax exemption from proceeds of insurance policies with very high value will also have limit. There are a number of proposals relating to rationalization and simplification of direct taxes in the Union Budget.

Other major proposals in the Budget relate to Extension of period of tax benefits to funds relocating to IFSC, GIFT City till 31.03.2025; Decriminalisation under section 276A of the Income Tax Act; Allowing carry forward of losses on strategic disinvestment including that of IDBI Bank;  and Providing EEE status to Agniveer Fund.

Proposals relating to MSMEs

Describing MSMEs as growth engines of our economy, the Budget proposes enhanced limits for micro enterprises and certain professionals for availing the benefit of presumptive taxation. To support MSMEs in timely receipt of payments, the Budget allows deduction for expenditure incurred on payments made to them only when payment is actually made.

Cooperation

The Budget has a slew of proposals for the cooperative sector. New cooperatives that commence manufacturing activities till 31st March next year shall get the benefit of a lower tax rate of 15%. The Budget provides an opportunity to sugar cooperatives to claim payments made to sugarcane farmers for the period prior to assessment year 2016-17 as expenditure. A higher limit of ₹ 2 lakh per member has been provided for cash deposits to and loans in cash by Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies and Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks. The Budget proposes a higher limit of ₹ 3 crore for TDS on cash withdrawal for cooperative societies.

Start-ups

The Budget proposes to extend the date of incorporation for income tax benefits to start-ups from 31.03.2023 to 31.03.2024. It also provides the benefit of carry forward of losses on change of shareholding of start-ups from 7 years of incorporation to 10 years.

Amendments in CGST Act

The Budget provides for amending the CGST Act so as to raise the minimum threshold of tax amount for launching prosecution under GST from ₹ 1 crore to ₹ 2 crore, except for the offence of issuance of invoices without supply of goods and services or both. The compounding amount will be reduced from the present range of 50 to 150% of tax amount to the range of 25 to 100%. It will also decriminalize certain clauses of the Act like obstruction and preventing of any officer from discharge of his duties, deliberate tempering of evidence or failure to supply the information.

Implications of tax changes

Announcing the changes in the direct and indirect taxes, the Finance Minister said that revenue of about ₹ 38,000 crore will be foregone as a result of these proposals, while revenue of about ₹3,000 crore will be additionally mobilised. She said thus the total revenue foregone is about ₹35,000 crore annually on account of these proposals.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE UNION BUDGET 2023-24

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The Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2023-24 in Parliament today. The highlights of the Budget are as follows:

PART A

  • Per capita income has more than doubled to ₹1.97 lakh in around nine years.
  • Indian economy has increased in size from being 10th to 5th largest in the world in the past nine years.
  • EPFO membership has more than doubled to 27 crore.
  • 7,400 crore digital payments of ₹126 lakh crore has taken place through UPI in 2022.
  • 11.7 crore household toilets constructed under Swachh Bharat Mission.
  • 9.6 crore LPG connections provided under Ujjwala.
  • 220 crore covid vaccination of 102 crore persons.
  • 47.8 crore PM Jan Dhan bank accounts.
  • Insurance cover for 44.6 crore persons under PM Suraksha Bima and PM Jeevan Jyoti Yojana.
  • Cash transfer of ₹2.2 lakh crore to over 11.4 crore farmers under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi.
  • Seven priorities of the budget ‘Saptarishi’ are inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and financial sector.
  • Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program with an outlay of ₹2200 crore to be launched to boost availability of disease-free, quality planting material for high value horticultural crops.
  • 157 new nursing colleges to be established in co-location with the existing 157 medical colleges established since 2014.
  • Centre to recruit 38,800 teachers and support staff for the 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools, serving 3.5 lakh tribal students over the next three years.
  • Outlay for PM Awas Yojana is being enhanced by 66% to over Rs. 79,000 crore.
  • Capital outlay of Rs. 2.40 lakh crore has been provided for the Railways, which is the highest ever outlay and about nine times the outlay made in 2013-14.
  • Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF) will be established through use of priority Sector Lending shortfall, which will be managed by the national Housing Bank, and will be used by public agencies to create urban infrastructure in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
  • Entity DigiLocker to be setup for use by MSMEs, large business and charitable trusts to store and share documents online securely.
  • 100 labs to be setup for 5G services based application development to realize a new range of opportunities, business models, and employment potential.
  • 500 new ‘waste to wealth’ plants under GOBARdhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme to be established for promoting circular economy at total investment of Rs 10,000 crore. 5 per cent compressed biogas mandate to be introduced for all organizations marketing natural and bio gas.
  • Centre to facilitate one crore farmers to adopt natural farming over the next three years. For this, 10,000 Bio-Input Resource Centres to be set-up, creating a national-level distributed micro-fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing network.
  • Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0, to be launched to skill lakhs of youth within the next three years covering new age courses for Industry 4.0 like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills.
  • 30 Skill India International Centres to be set up across different States to skill youth for international opportunities.
  • Revamped credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs to take effect from 1st April 2023 through infusion of Rs 9,000 crore in the corpus. This scheme would enable additional collateral-free guaranteed credit of Rs 2 lakh crore and also reduce the cost of the credit by about 1 per cent.
  • Central Processing Centre to be setup for faster response to companies through centralized handling of various forms filed with field offices under the Companies Act.
  • The maximum deposit limit for Senior Citizen Savings Scheme to be enhanced from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh.
  • Targeted Fiscal Deficit to be below 4.5% by 2025-26.
  • Agriculture Accelerator Fund to be set-up to encourage agri-startups by young entrepreneurs in rural areas.
  • To make India a global hub for ‘Shree Anna’, the Indian Institute of Millet Research, Hyderabad will be supported as the Centre of Excellence for sharing best practices, research and technologies at the international level.
  • ₹20 lakh crore agricultural credit targeted at animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries
  • A new sub-scheme of PM Matsya Sampada Yojana with targeted investment of ₹6,000 crore to be launched to further enable activities of fishermen, fish vendors, and micro & small enterprises, improve value chain efficiencies, and expand the market.
  • Digital public infrastructure for agriculture to be built as an open source, open standard and inter operable public good to enable inclusive farmer centric solutions and support for growth of agri-tech industry and start-ups.
  • Computerisation of 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) with an investment of ₹2,516 crore initiated.
  • Massive decentralised storage capacity to be set up to help farmers store their produce and realize remunerative prices through sale at appropriate times.
  • Sickle Cell Anaemia elimination mission to be launched.
  • Joint public and Private Medical research to be encouraged via select ICMR labs for encouraging collaborative research and innovation.
  • New Programme to promote research in Pharmaceuticals to be launched.
  • Rs. 10 lakh crore capital investment, a steep increase of 33% for third year in a row, to enhance growth potential and job creation, crowd-in private investments, and provide a cushion against global headwinds.
  • Aspirational Blocks Programme covering 500 blocks launched for saturation of essential government services across multiple domains such as health, nutrition, education, agriculture, water resources, financial inclusion, skill development, and basic infrastructure.
  • Rs. 15,000 crore for implementation of Pradhan Mantri PVTG Development Mission over the next three years under the Development Action Plan for the Scheduled Tribes.
  • Investment of Rs. 75,000 crore, including Rs. 15,000 crore from private sources, for one hundred critical transport infrastructure projects, for last and first mile connectivity for ports, coal, steel, fertilizer, and food grains sectors.
  • New Infrastructure Finance Secretariat established to enhance opportunities for private investment in infrastructure.
  • District Institutes of Education and Training to be developed as vibrant institutes of excellence for Teachers’ Training.
  • A National Digital Library for Children and Adolescents to be set-up for facilitating availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres and levels, and device agnostic accessibility.
  • Rs. 5,300 crore to be given as central assistance to Upper Bhadra Project to provide sustainable micro irrigation and filling up of surface tanks for drinking water.
  • ‘Bharat Shared Repository of Inscriptions’ to be set up in a digital epigraphy museum, with digitization of one lakh ancient inscriptions in the first stage.
  • ‘Effective Capital Expenditure’ of Centre to be Rs. 13.7 lakh crore.
  • Continuation of 50-year interest free loan to state governments for one more year to spur investment in infrastructure and to incentivize them for complementary policy actions.
  • Encouragement to states and cities to undertake urban planning reforms and actions to transform our cities into ‘sustainable cities of tomorrow’.
  • Transition from manhole to machine-hole mode by enabling all cities and towns to undertake 100 percent mechanical desludging of septic tanks and sewers.
  • iGOT Karmayogi, an integrated online training platform, launched to provide continuous learning opportunities for lakhs of government employees to upgrade their skills and facilitate people-centric approach.
  • More than 39,000 compliances reduced and more than 3,400 legal provisions decriminalized to enhance Ease Of Doing Business.
  • Jan Vishwas Bill to amend 42 Central Acts have been introduced to further trust-based governance.
  • Three centres of excellence for Artificial Intelligence to be set-up in top educational institutions to realise the vision of Make AI in India and Make AI work for India”.
  • National Data Governance Policy to be brought out to unleash innovation and research by start-ups and academia.
  • One stop solution for reconciliation and updation of identity and address of individuals to be established using DigiLocker service and Aadhaar as foundational identity.
  • PAN will be used as the common identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies to bring in Ease of Doing Business.
  • 95 per cent of the forfeited amount relating to bid or performance security, will be returned to MSME’s by government and government undertakings in cases the MSME’s failed to execute contracts during Covid period.
  • Result Based Financing to better allocate scarce resources for competing development needs.
  • Phase-3 of the E-Courts project to be launched with an outlay of Rs. 7,000 crore for efficient administration of justice.
  • R & D grant for Lab Grown Diamonds (LGD) sector to encourage indigenous production of LGD seeds and machines and to reduce import dependency.
  • Annual production of 5 MMT under Green Hydrogen Mission to be targeted by 2030 to facilitate transition of the economy to low carbon intensity and to reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports.
  • ₹35000 crore outlay for energy security, energy transition and net zero objectives.
  • Battery energy storage systems to be promoted to steer the economy on the sustainable development path.
  • 20,700 crore outlay provided for renewable energy grid integration and evacuation from Ladakh.
  • PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother Earth” (PM-PRANAM) to be launched to incentivize States and Union Territories to promote alternative fertilizers and balanced use of chemical fertilizers.
  • ‘Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes’, MISHTI, to be taken up for mangrove plantation along the coastline and on salt pan lands, through convergence between MGNREGS, CAMPA Fund and other sources.
  • Green Credit Programme to be notified under the Environment (Protection) Act to incentivize and mobilize additional resources for environmentally sustainable and responsive actions.
  • Amrit Dharohar scheme to be implemented over the next three years to encourage optimal use of wetlands, enhance bio-diversity, carbon stock, eco-tourism opportunities and income generation for local communities.
  • A unified Skill India Digital platform to be launched for enabling demand-based formal skilling, linking with employers including MSMEs, and facilitating access to entrepreneurship schemes.
  • Direct Benefit Transfer under a pan-India National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme to be rolled out to provide stipend support to 47 lakh youth in three years.
  • At least 50 tourist destinations to be selected through challenge mode; to be developed as a complete package for domestic and foreign tourists.
  • Sector specific skilling and entrepreneurship development to be dovetailed to achieve the objectives of the ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ initiative.
  • Tourism infrastructure and amenities to be facilitated in border villages through the Vibrant Villages Programme.
  • States to be encouraged to set up a Unity Mall for promotion and sale of their own and also all others states’ ODOPs (One District, One Product), GI products and handicrafts.
  • National Financial Information Registry to be set up to serve as the central repository of financial and ancillary information for facilitating efficient flow of credit, promoting financial inclusion, and fostering financial stability. A new legislative framework to be designed in consultation with RBI to govern this credit public infrastructure.
  • Financial sector regulators to carry out a comprehensive review of existing regulations in consultation with public and regulated entities. Time limits to decide the applications under various regulations would also be laid down.
  • To enhance business activities in GIFT IFSC, the following measures to be taken.
  • Delegating powers under the SEZ Act to IFSCA to avoid dual regulation.
  • Setting up a single window IT system for registration and approval from IFSCA, SEZ authorities, GSTN, RBI, SEBI and IRDAI.
  • Permitting acquisition financing by IFSC Banking Units of foreign bank.
  • Establishing a subsidiary of EXIM Bank for trade re-financing.
  • Amending IFSCA Act for statutory provisions for arbitration, ancillary services, and avoiding dual regulation under SEZ Act
  • Recognizing offshore derivative instruments as valid contracts.
  • Amendments proposed to the Banking Regulation Act, the Banking Companies Act and the Reserve of India Act to improve bank governance and enhance investors’ protection.
  • Countries looking for digital continuity solutions would be facilitated for setting up of their Data Embassies in GIFT IFSC.
  • SEBI to be empowered to develop, regulate, maintain and enforce norms and standards for education in the National Institute of Securities Markets and to recognize award of degrees, diplomas and certificates.
  • Integrated IT portal to be established to enable investors to easily reclaim the unclaimed shares and unpaid dividends from the Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority.
  • To commemorate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, a one-time new small savings scheme, Mahila Samman Savings Certificate to be launched. It will offer deposit facility upto Rs 2 lakh in the name of women or girls for tenure of 2 years (up to March 2025) at fixed interest rate of 7.5 per cent with partial withdrawal option.
  • The maximum deposit limit for Monthly Income Account Scheme to be enhanced from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh for single account and from Rs 9 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for joint account.
  • The entire fifty-year interest free loan to states to be spent on capital expenditure within 2023-24. Part of the loan is conditional on States increasing actual Capital expenditure and parts of outlay will be linked to States undertaking specific loans.
  • Fiscal Deficit of 3.5% of GSDP allowed for States of which 0.5% is tied to Power sector reforms.
  • Revised Estimates 2022-23:
    • The total receipts other than borrowings is Rs 24.3 lakh crore, of which the net tax receipts are Rs 20.9 lakh crore.
    • The total expenditure is Rs 41.9 lakh crore, of which the capital expenditure is about Rs 7.3 lakh crore.
    • The fiscal deficit is 6.4 per cent of GDP, adhering to the Budget Estimate.
  • Budget Estimates 2023-24:
  • The total receipts other than borrowings is estimated at Rs 27.2 lakh crore and the total expenditure is estimated at Rs 45 lakh crore.
  • The net tax receipts are estimated at Rs 23.3 lakh crore.
  • The fiscal deficit is estimated to be 5.9 per cent of GDP.
  • To finance the fiscal deficit in 2023-24, the net market borrowings from dated securities are estimated at Rs 11.8 lakh crore.
  • The gross market borrowings are estimated at Rs 15.4 lakh crore.

PART – B

DIRECT TAXES

  • Direct Tax proposals aim to maintain continuity and stability of taxation, further simplify and rationalise various provisions to reduce the compliance burden, promote the entrepreneurial spirit and provide tax relief to citizens.
  • Constant endeavour of the Income Tax Department to improve Tax Payers Services by making compliance easy and smooth.
  • To further improve tax payer services, proposal to roll out a next-generation Common IT Return Form for tax payer convenience, along with plans to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism.
  • Rebate limit of Personal Income Tax to be increased to Rs. 7 lakh from the current Rs. 5 lakh in the new tax regime. Thus, persons in the new tax regime, with income up to Rs. 7 lakh to not pay any tax.
  • Tax structure in new personal income tax regime, introduced in 2020 with six income slabs, to change by reducing the number of slabs to five and increasing the tax exemption limit to Rs. 3 lakh. Change to provide major relief to all tax payers in the new regime.

New tax rates

Total Income (Rs) Rate (per cent)
Up to 3,00,000 Nil
From 3,00,001 to 6,00,000 5
From 6,00,001 to 9,00,000 10
From 9,00,001 to 12,00,000 15
From 12,00,001 to 15,00,000 20
Above 15,00,000 30
  • Proposal to extend the benefit of standard deduction of Rs. 50,000 to salaried individual, and deduction from family pension up to Rs. 15,000, in the new tax regime.
  • Highest surcharge rate to reduce from 37 per cent to 25 per cent in the new tax regime. This to further result in reduction of the maximum personal income tax rate to 39 per cent.
  • The limit for tax exemption on leave encashment on retirement of non-government salaried employees to increase to Rs. 25 lakh.
  • The new income tax regime to be made the default tax regime. However, citizens will continue to have the option to avail the benefit of the old tax regime.
  • Enhanced limits for micro enterprises and certain professionals for availing the benefit of presumptive taxation proposed. Increased limit to apply only in case the amount or aggregate of the amounts received during the year, in cash, does not exceed five per cent of the total gross receipts/turnover.
  • Deduction for expenditure incurred on payments made to MSMEs to be allowed only when payment is actually made in order to support MSMEs in timely receipt of payments.
  • New co-operatives that commence manufacturing activities till 31.3.2024 to get the benefit of a lower tax rate of 15 per cent, as presently available to new manufacturing companies.
  • Opportunity provided to sugar co-operatives to claim payments made to sugarcane farmers for the period prior to assessment year 2016-17 as expenditure. This expected to provide them a relief of almost Rs. 10,000 crore.
  • Provision of a higher limit of Rs. 2 lakh per member for cash deposits to and loans in cash by Primary Agricultural Co-operative Societies (PACS) and Primary Co-operative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (PCARDBs).
  • A higher limit of Rs. 3 crore for TDS on cash withdrawal to be provided to co-operative societies.
  • Date of incorporation for income tax benefits to start-ups to be extended from 31.03.23 to 31.3.24.
  • Proposal to provide the benefit of carry forward of losses on change of shareholding of start-ups from seven years of incorporation to ten years.
  • Deduction from capital gains on investment in residential house under sections 54 and 54F to be capped at Rs. 10 crore for better targeting of tax concessions and exemptions.
  • Proposal to limit income tax exemption from proceeds of insurance policies with very high value. Where aggregate of premium for life insurance policies (other than ULIP) issued on or after 1st April, 2023 is above Rs. 5 lakh, income from only those policies with aggregate premium up to Rs. 5 lakh shall be exempt.
  • Income of authorities, boards and commissions set up by statutes of the Union or State for the purpose of housing, development of cities, towns and villages, and regulating, or regulating and developing an activity or matter, proposed to be exempted from income tax.
  • Minimum threshold of Rs. 10,000/- for TDS to be removed and taxability relating to online gaming to be clarified. Proposal to provide for TDS and taxability on net winnings at the time of withdrawal or at the end of the financial year.
  • Conversion of gold into electronic gold receipt and vice versa not to be treated as capital gain.
  • TDS rate to be reduced from 30 per cent to 20 per cent on taxable portion of EPF withdrawal in non-PAN cases.
  • Income from Market Linked Debentures to be taxed.
  • Deployment of about 100 Joint Commissioners for disposal of small appeals in order to reduce the pendency of appeals at Commissioner level.
  • Increased selectivity in taking up appeal cases for scrutiny of returns already received this year.
  • Period of tax benefits to funds relocating to IFSC, GIFT City extended till 31.03.2025.
  • Certain acts of omission of liquidators under section 276A of the Income Tax Act to be decriminalized with effect from 1st April, 2023.
  • Carry forward of losses on strategic disinvestment including that of IDBI Bank to be allowed.
  • Agniveer Fund to be provided EEE status. The payment received from the Agniveer Corpus Fund by the Agniveers enrolled in Agnipath Scheme, 2022 proposed to be exempt from taxes. Deduction in the computation of total income is proposed to be allowed to the Agniveer on the contribution made by him or the Central Government to his Seva Nidhi account.

INDIRECT TAXES

  • Number of basic customs duty rates on goods, other than textiles and agriculture, reduced to 13 from 21.
  • Minor changes in the basic custom duties, cesses and surcharges on some items including toys, bicycles, automobiles and naphtha.
  • Excise duty exempted on GST-paid compressed bio gas contained in blended compressed natural gas.
  • Customs Duty on specified capital goods/machinery for manufacture of lithium-ion cell for use in battery of electrically operated vehicle (EVs) extended to 31.03.2024
  • Customs duty exempted on vehicles, specified automobile parts/components, sub-systems and tyres when imported by notified testing agencies, for the purpose of testing and/ or certification, subject to conditions.
  • Customs duty on camera lens and its inputs/parts for use in manufacture of camera module of cellular mobile phone reduced to zero and concessional duty on lithium-ion cells for batteries extended for another year.
  • Basic customs duty reduced on parts of open cells of TV panels to 2.5 per cent.
  • Basic customs duty on electric kitchen chimney increased to 15 per cent from 7.5 per cent.
  • Basic customs duty on heat coil for manufacture of electric kitchen chimneys reduced to 15 per cent from 20 per cent.
  • Denatured ethyl alcohol used in chemical industry exempted from basic customs duty.
  • Basic customs duty reduced on acid grade fluorspar (containing by weight more than 97 per cent of calcium fluoride) to 2.5 per cent from 5 per cent.
  • Basic customs duty on crude glycerin for use in manufacture of epicholorhydrin reduced to 2.5 per cent from 7.5 per cent.
  • Duty reduced on key inputs for domestic manufacture of shrimp feed.
  • Basic customs duty reduced on seeds used in the manufacture of lab grown diamonds.
  • Duties on articles made from dore and bars of gold and platinum increased.
  • Import duty on silver dore, bars and articles increased.
  • Basic Customs Duty exemption on raw materials for manufacture of CRGO Steel, ferrous scrap and nickel cathode continued.
  • Concessional BCD of 2.5 per cent on copper scrap is continued.
  • Basic customs duty rate on compounded rubber increased to 25 per cent from 10 per cent or 30 per kg whichever is lower.
  • National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD) on specified cigarettes revised upwards by about 16 per cent.

Legislative Changes in Customs Laws

  • Customs Act, 1962 to be amended to specify a time limit of nine months from date of filing application for passing final order by Settlement Commission.
  • Customs Tariff Act to be amended to clarify the intent and scope of provisions relating to Anti-Dumping Duty (ADD), Countervailing Duty (CVD), and Safeguard Measures.
  • CGST Act to be amended
  • to raise the minimum threshold of tax amount for launching prosecution under GST from one crore to two crore;
  • to reduce the compounding amount from the present range of 50 to 150 per cent of tax amount to the range of 25 to 100 per cent;
  • decriminalise certain offences;
  • to restrict filing of returns/statements to a maximum period of three years from the due date of filing of the relevant return/statement; and
  • to enable unregistered suppliers and composition taxpayers to make intra-state supply of goods through E-Commerce Operators (ECOs).

PM lauds utilisation of India-UAE CEPA by Indian Exporters

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The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has lauded the utilisation of India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) by Indian Exporters.

Sharing a tweet by Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal, the Prime Minister tweeted;

“A great sign for Indian enterprise, it will make Indian products popular globally.”

The Government under PM, is a ‘facilitator’, and, not an ‘intimidator’: Dr. JItendra Singh

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Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given us the Mantra of “Maximum Governance, Minimum Government” which implies that role of the Government is that of “facilitator” and not “intimidator”.

The Minister was delivering inaugural address at the Foundation Training and Interactive Session with 2020 Batch of Assistant Section Officer (Probationers) at Institute of Secretariat Training & Management (ISTM), under DoPT at New Delhi today. Smt. S. Radha Chauhan, Secretary, DoPT along with other senior officials were also present on the occasion.

Dr. Jitendra Singh mentioned that Prime Minister Modi has made things easier for those in Government service as well as the common man by removing hurdles and obstructions, which is driven by the mantra of ‘Maximum Governance, Minimum Government’. He noted that in the last 8 years, almost 2000 laws have been done away with by the Union Government which had become obsolete.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said that Central Secretariat, as the entire universe of Central Ministries and Departments is commonly referred to, as the nerve centre of functioning of the Government of India. He said that the Secretariat’s primary responsibility is to assist and advise the political executive in policy formulation, implementation, review and modification of such policies from time to time.

A large number of young Government servants are coming with scientific and technological background, observed Dr Jitendra Singh, which will help the Government in creating awareness about specialised flagship programs related to drone, space technology, which require technical expertise and having that provides an edge to the younger lot as the entire government today has become technology-driven. He added that this will also help in adapting to the changing roles of CSS – being tech savvy for assessment of citizen’s needs, real time monitoring of schemes/programmes and using cutting edge technology for smart delivery of services.

The Union Minister also lauded the increased number of women joining government and said that the time has come that the women have started taking up leadership roles rather than being mere participants.

Dr. Singh said that the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is leading the National Transformation by building a New India, where the welfare of every citizen is at the heart of national planning and programmes, driven by the idea of Government being citizen-centric. He added that citizen welfare is not only the prime constitutional mandate for the government, but it is also important for ensuring a participative form of the Government.

The Union Minister said that the Nation invests heavily in each one of the Government servants at every level and this is the opportunity for them to build their abilities by carefully focussing on the learning in the institutes as well as while being on the job. He quoted the Prime Minister Shri Modi who has always emphasised that Government Service is a “Seva” and not “Naukri“ or Job, as the satisfaction it gives cannot be measured worldly. He said that in Government sector, the Government servants have the opportunity, mandate as well as the means to serve people through the policies that impact the common man.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the Government of India attaches high priority to training needs of every official and, under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, it has also started implementing the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building or Mission Karmayogi (Prarambh) aimed at creating an opportunity of world class capacity building to all Government officials based on the key principle of “role-based” learning”. He said that the young officers will appreciate that the role based learning empowers them directly to play their role effectively than the earlier practice of training in Rule based programs.

Dr. Singh said that the Secretariat has an important role of looking after several other important functions such as drafting legislations, rules and regulations, Sectoral planning and programme formulation, and exercises Budgetary control. He said that since now they are part of the government machinery, and this machinery requires their inputs and knowledge.

G Kishan Reddy launches the Visit India Year 2023 logo

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Shri G. Kishan Reddy,  Minister of Tourism, Culture and Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) launched the Visit India Year 2023 initiative and unveiled its logo at New Delhi today, kicking off the year of grand plans and activities for promoting tourism in India.

On the occasion, Union Minister for Tourism said that today the logo of Visit India Year 2023 is being launched and this in an important year as India is heading  G20.

The Union Minister also said that more than one lakh foreign delegates will visit India this year and they will be showcased entire gamut of  India’s Culture, including monuments and festivals.

Shri G. Kishan Reddy added that each foreign delegate of G20 will be a brand ambassador of India’s culture, heritage and tourist destinations.

Shri Kishan Reddy further stated that Ministry of Tourism is coordinating with Indian missions and other stakeholders to have a conducive environment for foreign visitors this year.

Harnessing the momentum created by the recovery of the global industry, preferential sentiment from global travelers for exploring India and building upon the success in growing tourism in India over the years–the Tourism Ministry is on a mission to unlock the untapped potential of tourism in India, making India a 365-day destination.

Encouraging the inbound travel and particularly in the backdrop of India’s G20 Presidency as well as grand celebrations of India@75 Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Ministry of Tourism is celebrating this year as ‘Visit India Year 2023’. The focus is on inbound travel to India, to highlight varied tourism offerings of our country and showcase them to the global tourists. The priorities include highlighting the unique tourism offerings of every state by leveraging country’s richness in culture, heritage, spirituality, natural beauty and focusing on promoting diverse categories of tourism like sustainable tourism, rural tourism, medical tourism, MICE, and others.

The Ministry is geared to make great strides in improving both the infrastructure and other framework conditions impacting the growth of tourism within the year. To achieve synergies in the Ministry’s efforts and requirements of the tourism sector, the Ministry of Tourism is working with all the relevant ministries and government agencies,partners, travel and trade industry, state governments and tourism boards, and key stakeholders which have influence and impact on tourism.

India’s G20 presidency presents itself as a fantastic opportunity to highlight the country’s tourism offerings on a global stage. The Ministry plans to unlock this global campaign, by starting at home – inspiring citizens into being India’s ambassadors with pride-evoking citizen advocacy campaigns across the year in the backdrop of India’s G20 presidency leveraging the engagements across the G20 meeting cities.

The ‘Incredible India’ brand will continue to be leveraged, embellished, and polished to match the renewed expectations of travelers around the world. The plans for the brand to be supported by a best-in-class digital ecosystem are already in action including a reimagined website that will unbox soul-stirring stories across various travel experience categories that show the many hues of India, speaking to all senses with immersive tech-innovations to offer personalized experience for travelers across the world. The brand platform will also see renewed global social media outreach of Incredible India, making the world fall in love with India. To further harness the power of content the Ministry will be launching the signature newsletter that will take India’s voice across the globe, regaling the world with India’s unheard stories through new unique mouthpiece and leveraging voices that shape opinions in the industry. Getting on-board partnerships and collaborations that become the voices of Incredible India global influencers, opinion shapers, industry leaders, experts on culture and history etc. all with a special focus on Rural Tourism and Sustainable Tourism with a spotlight on a modern, progressive India and reactivates the MICE segment to a business-ready India.

Giving a visual representation to this grand mission for the year, today the Ministry flags the global campaign with the launch of the new Visit India Year 2023 logo, a microcosm of the countless stories India holds – from heritage to gastronomy to our art and our rich wildlife. The logo design is inspired by our belief system of Atithi Devo Bhava, the ‘Visit India Year 2023’ logo is a thoughtfully-designed visual identity that is shaped like a grand namaste. Namaste holds cultural significance in India as it is not just a quintessential way to greet people but also a noble gesture to welcome them. Here, by folding our hands, India and its citizens are inviting the world to visit India. But there is more to the logo than meets the eye. On a closer look, one will find that the Namaste is in fact a colourful medley of the vibrant experiences, illustrious heritage, rich culture, sumptuous delicacies, enchanting wildlife, intricate art forms and a lot more that India stands for. Every icon shown in the logo represents India, in its own unique way. The ‘Visit India Year 2023’ logo is an open invitation to the world to come and experience the Incredible India.

In the larger scheme of things, this is just the beginning and much more to come as India invites the world like never before and many exciting initiatives planned for the year ahead. The Ministry is excited to kick start this global campaign set to bring about immense positive impact on the tourism sector and appeal all related industries, businesses, and authorities to leverage the momentum to showcase their strengths and help exhibit a spectacle for the world to witness the incredibleness of India.

ECONOMIC SURVEY 2022-23: HIGHLIGHTS

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Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, presented the Economic Survey 2022-23 in the Union Parliament today. The highlights of the Survey are as follows:

State of the Economy 2022-23: Recovery Complete

  • Recovering from pandemic-induced contraction, Russian-Ukraine conflict and inflation, Indian economy is staging a broad based recovery across sectors, positioning to ascend to the pre-pandemic growth path in FY23.
  • India’s GDP growth is expected to remain robust in FY24. GDP forecast for FY24 to be in the range of 6-6.8 %.
  • Private consumption in H1 is highest since FY15 and this has led to a boost to production activity resulting in enhanced capacity utilisation across sectors.
  • The Capital Expenditure of Central Government and crowding in the private Capex led by strengthening of the balance sheets of the Corporates is one of the growth driver of the Indian economy in the current year.
  • The credit growth to the MSME sector was over 30.6 per cent on average during Jan-Nov 2022.
  • Retail inflation is back within RBI’s target range in November 2022.
  • Indian Rupee performed well compared to other Emerging Market Economies in Apr-Dec2022.
  • Direct Tax collections for the period April-November 2022 remain buoyant.
  • Enhanced Employment generation seen in the declining urban unemployment rate and in the faster net registration in Employee Provident Fund.
  • Economic growth to be boosted from the expansion of public digital platforms and measures to boost manufacturing output.

India’s Medium Term Growth Outlook: with Optimism and Hope

  • Indian economy underwent wide-ranging structural and governance reforms that strengthened the economy’s fundamentals by enhancing its overall efficiency during 2014-2022.
  • With an underlying emphasis on improving the ease of living and doing business, the reforms after 2014 were based on the broad principles of creating public goods, adopting trust-based governance, co-partnering with the private sector for development, and improving agricultural productivity.
  • The period of 2014-2022 also witnessed balance sheet stress caused by the credit boom in the previous years and one-off global shocks, that adversely impacted the key macroeconomic variables such as credit growth, capital formation, and hence economic growth during this period.
  • This situation is analogous to the period 1998-2002 when transformative reforms undertaken by the government had lagged growth returns due to temporary shocks in the economy. Once these shocks faded, the structural reforms paid growth dividends from 2003.
  • Similarly, the Indian economy is well placed to grow faster in the coming decade once the global shocks of the pandemic and the spike in commodity prices in 2022 fade away.
  • With improved and healthier balance sheets of the banking, non-banking and corporate sectors, a fresh credit cycle has already begun, evident from the double-digit growth in bank credit over the past months.
  • Indian economy has also started benefiting from the efficiency gains resulting from greater formalisation, higher financial inclusion, and economic opportunities created by digital technology-based economic reforms.
  • Thus Chapter 2 of the Survey shows that India’s growth outlook seems better than in the pre-pandemic years, and the Indian economy is prepared to grow at its potential in the medium term.

Fiscal Developments: Revenue Relish

  • The Union Government finances have shown a resilient performance during the year FY23, facilitated by the recovery in economic activity, buoyancy in revenues from direct taxes and GST, and realistic assumptions in the Budget.
  • The Gross Tax Revenue registered a YoY growth of 15.5 per cent from April to November 2022, driven by robust growth in the direct taxes and Goods and Services Tax (GST).
  • Growth in direct taxes during the first eight months of the year was much higher than their corresponding longer-term averages.
  • GST has stabilised as a vital revenue source for central and state governments, with the gross GST collections increasing at 24.8 per cent on YoY basis from April to December 2022.
  • Union Government’s emphasis on capital expenditure (Capex) has continued despite higher revenue expenditure requirements during the year. The Centre’s Capex has steadily increased from a long-term average of 1.7 per cent of GDP (FY09 to FY20) to 2.5 per cent of GDP in FY22 PA.
  • The Centre has also incentivised the State Governments through interest-free loans and enhanced borrowing ceilings to prioritise their spending on Capex.
  • With an emphasis on infrastructure-intensive sectors like roads and highways, railways, and housing and urban affairs, the increase in Capex has large-scale positive implications for medium-term growth.
  • The Government’s Capex-led growth strategy will enable India to keep the growth-interest rate differential positive, leading to a sustainable debt to GDP in the medium run.

Monetary Management and Financial Intermediation: A Good Year

  • The RBI initiated its monetary tightening cycle in April 2022 and has since raised the repo rate by 225 bps, leading to moderation of surplus liquidity conditions.
  • Cleaner balance sheets led to enhanced lending by financial institutions.
  • The growth in credit offtake is expected to sustain, and combined with a pick-up in private capex, will usher in a virtuous investment cycle.
  • Non-food credit offtake by scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) has been growing in double digits since April 2022.
  • Credit disbursed by Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) has also been on the rise.
  • The Gross Non-Performing Assets (GNPA) ratio of SCBs has fallen to a seven-year low of 5.0.
  • The Capital-to-Risk Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) remains healthy at 16.0.
  • The recovery rate for the SCBs through Insolvency and Bankruptcy (IBC) was highest in FY22 compared to other channels.

Prices and Inflation: Successful Tight-Rope Walking

  • While the year 2022 witnessed a return of high inflation in the advanced world after three to four decades, India caps the rise in prices.
  • While India’s retail inflation rate peaked at 7.8 per cent in April 2022, above the RBI’s upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent, the overshoot of inflation above the upper end of the target range in India was however one of the lowest in the world.
  • The government adopted a multi-pronged approach to tame the increase in price levels
    • Phase wise reduction in export duty of petrol and diesel
    • Import duty on major inputs were brought to zero while tax on export of iron ores and concentrates increased from 30 to 50 per cent
    • Waived customs duty on cotton imports w.e.f 14 April 2022, until 30 September 2022
    • Prohibition on the export of wheat products under HS Code 1101 and imposition of export duty on rice
    • Reduction in basic duty on crude and refined palm oil, crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil
  • The RBI’s anchoring of inflationary expectations through forward guidance and responsive monetary policy has helped guide the trajectory of inflation in the country.
  • The one-year-ahead inflationary expectations by both businesses and households have moderated in the current financial year.
  • Timely policy intervention by the government in housing sector, coupled with low home loan interest rates propped up demand and attracted buyers more readily in the affordable segment in FY23.
  • An overall increase in composite Housing Price Indices (HPI) assessment and Housing Price Indices market prices indicates a revival in the housing finance sector. A stable to moderate increase in HPI also offers confidence to homeowners and home loan financiers in terms of the retained value of the asset.
  • India’s inflation management has been particularly noteworthy and can be contrasted with advanced economies that are still grappling with sticky inflation rates.

Social Infrastructure and Employment: Big Tent

  • Social Sector witnessed significant increase in government spending.
  • Central and State Government’s budgeted expenditure on health sector touched 2.1% of GDP in FY23 (BE) and 2.2% in FY22 (RE) against 1.6% in FY21.
  • Social sector expenditure increases to Rs. 21.3 lakh crore in FY23 (BE) from Rs. 9.1 lakh crore in FY16.
  • Survey highlights the findings of the 2022 report of the UNDP on Multidimensional Poverty Index which says that 41.5 crore people exit poverty in India between 2005-06 and 2019-20.
  • The Aspirational Districts Programme has emerged as a template for good governance, especially in remote and difficult areas.
  • eShram portal developed for creating a National database of unorganised workers, which is verified with Aadhaar. As on 31 December 2022, a total of over 28.5 crore unorganised workers have been registered on eShram portal.
  • JAM (Jan-Dhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile) trinity, combined with the power of DBT, has brought the marginalised sections of society into the formal financial system, revolutionising the path of transparent and accountable governance by empowering the people.
  • Aadhaar played a vital role in developing the Co-WIN platform and in the transparent administration of over 2 billion vaccine doses.
  • Labour markets have recovered beyond pre-Covid levels, in both urban and rural areas, with unemployment rates falling from 5.8 per cent in 2018-19 to 4.2 per cent in 2020-21.
  • The year FY22 saw improvement in Gross Enrolment Ratios (GER) in schools and improvement in gender parity. GER in the primary-enrolment in class I to V as a percentage of the population in age 6 to 10 years – for girls as well as boys have improved in FY22.
  • Due to several steps taken by the government on health, out-of-pocket expenditure as a percentage of total health expenditure declined from 64.2% in FY14 to 48.2% in FY19.
  • Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Under Five mortality rate (U5MR) and neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) have shown a steady decline.
  • More than 220 crore COVID vaccine doses administered as on 06 January, 2023.
  • Nearly 22 crore beneficiaries have been verified under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme as on 04 January, 2023. Over 1.54 lakh Health and Wellness Centres have been operationalized across the country under Ayushman Bharat.

Climate Change and Environment: Preparing to Face the Future

  • India declared the Net Zero Pledge to achieve net zero emissions goal by 2070.
  • India achieved its target of 40 per cent installed electric capacity from non-fossil fuels ahead of 2030.
  • The likely installed capacity from non-fossil fuels to be more than 500 GW by 2030 resulting in decline of average emission rate by around 29% by 2029-30, compared to 2014-15.
  • India to reduce emissions intensity of its GDP by 45% by 2030 from 2005 levels.
  • About 50% cumulative electric power installed capacity to come from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.
  • A mass movement LIFE– Life style for Environment launched.
  • Sovereign Green Bond Framework (SGrBs) issued in November 2022.
  • RBI auctions two tranches of ₹4,000 crore Sovereign Green Bonds (SGrB).
  • National Green Hydrogen Mission to enable India to be energy independent by 2047.
  • Green hydrogen production capacity of at least 5 MMT (Million Metric Tonne) per annum to be developed by 2030. Cumulative reduction in fossil fuel imports over ₹1 lakh crore and creation of over 6 lakh jobs by 2030 under the National green Hydrogen Mission. Renewable energy capacity addition of about 125 GW and abatement of nearly 50 MMT of annual GHG emissions by 2030.
  • The Survey highlights the progress on eight missions under the NAP on CC to address climate concerns and promote sustainable development.
  • Solar power capacity installed, a key metric under the National Solar Mission stood at 61.6 GW as on October 2022.
  • India becoming a favored destination for renewables; investments in 7 years stand at USD 78.1 billion.
  • 62.8 lakh individual household toilets and 6.2 lakh community and public toilets constructed (August 2022) under the National Mission on Sustainable Habitat.

Agriculture and Food Management

  • The performance of the agriculture and allied sector has been buoyant over the past several years, much of which is on account of the measures taken by the government to augment crop and livestock productivity, ensure certainty of returns to the farmers through price support, promote crop diversification, improve market infrastructure through the impetus provided for the setting up of farmer-producer organisations and promotion of investment in infrastructure facilities through the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.
  • Private investment in agriculture increases to 9.3% in 2020-21.
  • MSP for all mandated crops fixed at 1.5 times of all India weighted average cost of production since 2018.
  • Institutional Credit to the Agricultural Sector continued to grow to 18.6 lakh crore in 2021-22
  • Foodgrains production in India saw sustained increase and stood at 315.7 million tonnes in 2021-22.
  • Free foodgrains to about 81.4 crore beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act for one year from January 1, 2023.
  • About 11.3 crore farmers were covered under the Scheme in its April-July 2022-23 payment cycle.
  • Rs 13,681 crores sanctioned for Post-Harvest Support and Community Farms under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.
  • Online, Competitive, Transparent Bidding System with 1.74 crore farmers and 2.39 lakh traders put in place under the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Scheme.
  • Organic Farming being promoted through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) under the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY).
  • India stands at the forefront to promote millets through the International Year of Millets initiative.

Industry: Steady Recovery

  • Overall Gross Value Added (GVA) by the Industrial Sector (for the first half of FY 22-23) rose 3.7 per cent, which is higher than the average growth of 2.8 per cent achieved in the first half of the last decade.
  • Robust growth in Private Final Consumption Expenditure, export stimulus during the first half of the year, increase in investment demand triggered by enhanced public capex and strengthened bank and corporate balance sheets have provided a demand stimulus to industrial growth.
  • The supply response of the industry to the demand stimulus has been robust.
  • PMI manufacturing has remained in the expansion zone for 18 months since July 2021, and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grows at a healthy pace.
  • Credit to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) has grown by an average of around 30% since January 2022 and credit to large industry has been showing double-digit growth since October 2022.
  • Electronics exports rise nearly threefold, from US $4.4 billion in FY19 to US $11.6 Billion in FY22.
  • India has become the second-largest mobile phone manufacturer globally, with the production of handsets going up from 6 crore units in FY15 to 29 crore units in FY21.
  • Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows into the Pharma Industry has risen four times, from US $180 million in FY19 to US $699 million in FY22.
  • The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes introduced across 14 categories, with an estimated capex of ₹4 lakh crore over the next five years, to plug India into global supply chains. Investment of ₹47,500 crores has been seen under the PLI schemes in the FY22, which is 106% of the designated target for the year. Production/sales worth ₹3.85 lakh crore and employment generation of 3.0 lakh have been recorded due to PLI schemes.
  • Over 39,000 compliances have been reduced and more than 3500 provisions decriminalized as of January 2023.

 

Services: Source of Strength

  • The services sector is expected to grow at 9.1% in FY23, as against 8.4% (YoY) in FY22.
  • Robust expansion in PMI services, indicative of service sector activity, observed since July 2022.
  • India was among the top ten services exporting countries in 2021, with its share in world commercial services exports increasing from 3 per cent in 2015 to 4 per cent in 2021.
  • India’s services exports remained resilient during the Covid-19 pandemic and amid geopolitical uncertainties driven by higher demand for digital support, cloud services, and infrastructure modernization.
  • Credit to services sector has grown by over 16% since July 2022.
  • US$ 7.1 billion FDI equity inflows in services sector in FY22.
  • Contact-intensive services are set to reclaim pre-pandemic level growth rates in FY23.
  • Sustained growth in the real estate sector is taking housing sales to pre-pandemic levels, with a 50% rise between 2021 and 2022.
  • Hotel occupancy rate has improved from 30-32% in April 2021 to 68-70% in November 2022.
  • Tourism sector is showing signs of revival, with foreign tourist arrivals in India in FY23 growing month-on-month with resumption of scheduled international flights and easing of Covid-19 regulations.
  • Digital platforms are transforming India’s financial services.
  • India’s e-commerce market is projected to grow at 18 per cent annually through 2025.

External Sector

  • Merchandise exports were US$ 332.8 billion for April-December 2022.
  • India diversified its markets and increased its exports to Brazil, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
  • To increase its market size and ensure better penetration, in 2022, CEPA with UAE and ECTA with Australia come into force.
  • India is the largest recipient of remittances in the world receiving US$ 100 bn in 2022. Remittances are the second largest major source of external financing after service export
  • As of December 2022, Forex Reserves stood at US$ 563 bn covering 9.3 months of imports.
  • As of end-November 2022, India is the sixth largest foreign exchange reserves holder in the world.
  • The current stock of external debt is well shielded by the comfortable level of foreign exchange reserves.
  • India has relatively low levels of total debt as a percentage of Gross National Income and short-term debt as a percentage of total debt.

 

Physical and Digital Infrastructure

Government’s Vision for Infrastructure Development

  • Public Private Partnerships
    • In-Principal Approval granted to 56 projects with Total Project Cost of ₹57,870.1 crore under the VGF Scheme, from 2014-15 to 2022-23.
    • IIPDF Scheme with ₹150 crore outlay from FY 23-25 was notified by the government on 03 November, 2022.

 

  • National Infrastructure Pipeline
    • 89,151 projects costing ₹141.4 lakh crore under different stages of implementation
    • 1009 projects worth ₹5.5 lakh crore completed
    • NIP and Project Monitoring Group (PMG) portal linkage to fast-track approvals/ clearances for projects

 

  • National Monetisation Pipeline
    • ₹ 9.0 lakh crore is the estimated cumulative investment potential.
    • ₹ 0.9 lakh crore monetisation target achieved against expected ₹0.8 lakh crore in FY22.
    • FY23 target is envisaged to be ₹1.6 lakh crore (27 per cent of overall NMP Target)

 

  • GatiShakti
    • PM GatiShakti National Master Plan creates comprehensive database for integrated planning and synchronised implementation across Ministries/ Departments.
    • Aims to improve multimodal connectivity and logistics efficiency while addressing the critical gaps for the seamless movement of people and goods.

Electricity Sector and Renewables

  • As on 30 September 2022, the government has sanctioned the entire target capacity of 40 GW for the development of 59 Solar Parks in 16 states.
  • 17.2 lakh GWh electricity generated during the year FY22 compared to 15.9 lakh GWh during FY21.
  • The total installed power capacity (industries having demand of 1 Mega Watt (MW) and above) increased from 460.7 GW on 31 March 2021 to 482.2 GW on 31 March 2022.

 

Making Indian Logistics Globally Competitive

  • National Logistics Policy envisions to develop a technologically enabled, integrated, cost-efficient, resilient, sustainable and trusted logistics ecosystem in the country for accelerated and inclusive growth.
  • Rapid increase in National Highways (NHs) /Roads Construction with 10457 km NHs/roads constructed in FY22 compared to 6061 km in FY16.
  • Budget expenditure increased from ₹1.4 lakh crore in FY20 to ₹2.4 lakh crore in FY23 giving renewed push to Capital expenditure.
  • 2359 Kisan rails transported approximately 7.91 lakh tonnes of perishables, as of October 2022.
  • More than one crore air passengers availed the benefit of the UDAN scheme since its inception in 2016.
  • Near doubling of capacity of major ports in 8 years.
  • Inland Vessels Act 2021 replaced 100-year-old Act to ensure hassle free movement of Vessels promoting Inland Water Transport.

 

India’s Digital Public Infrastructure

  • Unified Payment Interface (UPI)
    • UPI-based transactions grew in value (121 per cent) and volume (115 per cent) terms, between 2019-22, paving the way for its international adoption.
  • Telephone and Radio – For Digital Empowerment
    • Total telephone subscriber base in India stands at 117.8 crore (as of Sept,22), with 44.3 per cent of subscribers in rural India.
    • More than 98 per cent of the total telephone subscribers are connected wirelessly.
    • The overall tele-density in India stood at 84.8 per cent in March 22.
    • 200 per cent increase in rural internet subscriptions between 2015 and 2021.
    • Prasar Bharati (India’s autonomous public service broadcaster) – broadcasts in 23 languages, 179 dialects from 479 stations. Reaches 92 per cent of the area and 99.1 per cent of the total population.
  • Digital Public Goods
    • Achieved low-cost accessibility since the launch of Aadhaar in 2009
    • Under the government schemes, MyScheme, TrEDS, GEM, e-NAM, UMANG has transformed market place and has enabled citizens to access services across sectors
    • Under Account Aggregator, the consent-based data sharing framework is currently live across over 110 crore bank accounts.
    • Open Credit Enablement Network aims towards democratising lending operations while allowing end-to-end digital loan applications
    • National AI portal has published 1520 articles, 262 videos, and 120 government initiatives and is being viewed as viewed as a tool for overcoming the language barrier e.g. ‘Bhashini’.
    • Legislations are being introduced for enhanced user privacy and creating an ecosystem for standard, open, and interoperable protocols underlining robust data governance.

PM’s remarks ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament

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नमस्‍कार साथियों।

2023 का वर्ष आज बजट सत्र का प्रारंभ हो रहा है और प्रारंभ में ही अर्थ जगत के जिनकी आवाज को मान्‍यता होती है वैसी आवाज चारों तरफ से सकारात्‍मक संदेश लेकर के आ रही है, आशा की किरण लेकर के आ रही है, उमंग का आगाज लेकर के आ रही है। आज एक महत्‍वपूर्ण अवसर है। भारत के वर्तमान राष्‍ट्रपति जी की आज पहली ही संयुक्‍त सदन को वो संबोधित करने जा रही है। राष्‍ट्रपति जी का भाषण भारत के संविधान का गौरव है, भारत की संसदीय प्रणाली का गौरव है और विशेष रूप से आज नारी सम्‍मान का भी अवसर है और दूर-सुदूर जंगलों में जीवन बसर करने वाले हमारे देश के महान आदिवासी परंपरा के सम्‍मान का भी अवसर है। न सिर्फ सांसदों को लेकिन आज पूरे देश के लिए गौरव का पल है की भारत के वर्तमान राष्‍ट्रपति जी का आज पहला उदृबोधन हो रहा है। और हमारे संसदीय कार्य में छह सात दशक से जो परंपराऐं विकसित हुई है उन परंपराओं में देखा गया है कि अगर कोई भी नया सांसद जो पहली बार सदन में बोलने के लिए में खड़ा होता है तो किसी भी दल का क्‍यों न हो जो वो पहली बार बोलता है तो पूरा सदन उनको सम्‍मानित करता है, उनका आत्‍मविश्‍वास बढ़े उस प्रकार से एक सहानूकूल वातावरण तैयार करता है। एक उज्‍जवल और उत्‍तम परंपरा है। आज राष्‍ट्रपति जी का उदृबोधन भी पहला उदृबोधन है सभी सांसदों की तरफ से उमंग, उत्‍साह और ऊर्जा से भरा हुआ आज का ये पल हो ये हम सबका दायित्‍व है। मुझे विश्‍वास है हम सभी सांसद इस कसौटी पर खरे उतरेंगे। हमारे देश की वित्त मंत्री भी महिला है वे कल और एक बजट लेकर के देश के सामने आ रही है। आज की वैश्‍विक परिस्‍थिति में भारत के बजट की तरफ न सिर्फ भारत का लेकिन पूरे विश्‍व का ध्‍यान है। डामाडोल विश्‍व की आर्थिक परिस्‍थिति में भारत का बजट भारत के सामान्‍य मानवी की आशा-आकाक्षों को तो पूरा करने का प्रयास करेगा ही लेकिन विश्‍व जो आशा की किरण देख रहा है उसे वो और अधिक प्रकाशमान नजर आए। मुझे पूरा भरोसा है निर्मला जी इन अपेक्षाओं को पूर्ण करने के लिए भरपूर प्रयास करेगी। भारतीय जनता पार्टी के नेतृत्‍व में एनडीए सरकार उसका एक ही मकसद रहा है, एक ही मोटो रहा है, एक ही लक्ष्‍य रहा है और हमारी कार्य संस्‍कृति के केंद्र बिंदु में भी एक ही विचार रहा है ‘India First Citizen First’ सबसे पहले देश, सबसे पहले देशवासी। उसी भावना को आगे बढाते हुए ये बजट सत्र में भी तकरार भी रहेगी लेकिन तकरीर भी तो होनी चाहिए और मुझे विश्‍वास है कि हमारे विपक्ष के सभी साथी बड़ी तैयारी के साथ बहुत बारीकी से अध्‍ययन करके सदन में अपनी बात रखेंगे। सदन देश के नीति-निर्धारण में बहुत ही अच्‍छी तरह से चर्चा करके अमृत निकालेगा जो देश का काम आएगा। मैं फिर एक बार आप सबका स्‍वागत करता हूं।

बहुत-बहुत शुभकामनाएं देता हूं। धन्‍यवाद।

Union Home Minister inaugurates SGML Eye Hospital in Ujjain, MP

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Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, inaugurated SGML Eye Hospital built by Shri Swaminarayan Sansthan Vadtal in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, through video conferencing today. Many dignitaries including the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan were present on the occasion.

Shri Amit Shah began his address by paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 75th death anniversary. He said that Bapu not only propagated India’s message of non-violence all over the world, but also established it.

The Union Home Minister said that Ujjain Dham of Madhya Pradesh has always been the centre of faith for crores of devotees of the country and the temple of Lord Mahakal has been very important in the history of our country since the time of the Vedas. He said that many temples in Ujjain have become the centre of attraction for the whole world and recently Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has inaugurated the grand corridor of ‘Mahakal Lok’ to restore the grandeur of Ujjain and its faith. With the construction of Mahakal Lok, the centre of devotion of crores of people across the country has been strengthened even more.

Shri Amit Shah said that an eye hospital is being inaugurated here today. He said that Bhagwan Swaminarayan came from Uttar Pradesh to Gujarat and resided there permanently and by roaming all over the country, he gained knowledge and propagated among people through ‘Vachanamrit’ and he did a lot of work for the welfare of the whole world, especially the people of Gujarat. Shri Shah said that 200 years ago, he established the Swaminarayan sect, which has grown immensely and shining in India like a pole star today.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that the Swaminarayan sect has provided many types of services. He said that different institutions of the Swaminarayan sect in Gujarat have contributed a lot in the field of education. Shri Shah said that arrangements have been made in the Gurukuls of the Swaminarayan sect to not only provide religious ethos but also the education of highest standard to the poor students. He said that along with the field of education, Swaminarayan sect has done a great job by helping crores of youth of the country to overcome from drug addiction. He said that de-addiction was a matter of great importance for Swami Narayan Bhagwan and by combining it with religion he launched a huge campaign to make people free from drugs. Shri Shah said that this 50 bedded eye hospital will free people from various types of eye diseases. He said that this 50-bedded hospital built at a cost of Rs.15 crore, through state-of-the-art technology, the poorest of the poor eye patients will be able to get affordable treatment.

Shri Amit Shah said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has not only provided free health facilities up to Rs. 5 lakh to 80 crore poor people of the country through Ayushman Bharat Yojana, but the number of medical colleges, MBBS seats and PG seats have been increased too. He said that in the whole world this is the first and only example of providing complete health care coverage of up to Rs.5 lakh to 80 crore people. Shri Shah said that the number of medical colleges has been increased from 387 to 596, the number of MBBS seats has been increased from 51,000 to 89,000 and the number of PG seats has been increased from 31,000 to 60,000 by the Government led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. He added that an increase of 55% in the number of colleges, one and a half times increase in the number of MBBS seats and doubling of MS and MD seats will immensely strengthen India’s health infrastructure. Shri Shah said that the Government of India has established 22 new AIIMS, which will greatly benefit the poor. Shri Shah congratulated the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan for starting medical education in Indian language for the first time in the whole of India and said that by completely translating all the MBBS course into Hindi, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has provided a new momentum to the Indian languages.

India is developing rapidly due to science and innovation: Narendra Singh Tomar

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The two-day meeting of the first International Financial Architecture Working Group of G-20, being held under the chairmanship of India, was inaugurated in Chandigarh today by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar and Minister of Food Processing Industries, Shri Pashupati Kumar Paras. On this occasion, Shri Tomar said that India is developing rapidly with science and innovation, both of them are deeply connected with the future of India. We have leveraged technology to create the digital public infrastructure. We have been a significant contributor to financial inclusion in global healthcare and the move to sustainable energy while people-centric development is the basis of our national strategy. This is the same philosophy that the theme of our G-20 Presidency, – ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’, also underlines.

Union Minister Shri Tomar said that India’s chairmanship of G-20 is a proud moment for all our citizens, besides we are well aware of the responsibilities that come with this historic occasion. Today the world is facing many complex challenges, which are deeply interlinked and are not defined by boundaries alone. The challenges being faced are global in nature and require global solutions, therefore the world community today needs to push more towards globally coordinated policies and actions. There is also a need for a renewed faith in multilateralism. Our nation, that is fully committed to democracy and multilateralism,  is poised to demonstrate not only multidimensional development but is also ready to display universally recognized power. It is not surprising that India was described as a beacon in a fragile world at the recently held World Economic Forum meeting and India’s commitment to climate goals and return to the post-Covid development path has been lauded by one and all.

Shri Tomar said that India is ready to fulfil the responsibility given to it. We will be happy to share our template of the development model, so also we look forward to learning from all. Through our priorities and outcomes this year, through deliberations, we aim to find practical global solutions. In doing so, we also take a keen interest in amplifying the voice of the Developing countries. Shri Tomar said that we cannot leave anyone behind now. Through our inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented and decisive agenda of the G-20, we aim to express the true spirit of our goal, – ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’.

Referring to the exemplary contribution of this group in providing aid to the most vulnerable and low-income developing countries in the recent years, he said the measures taken to alleviate the rising insecurity over credit flow are particularly noteworthy. The growing momentum regarding efforts will continue during India’s chairmanship in 2023. The group will also consider how we can leverage the group’s comfortable position to redesign global and financial governance. Under the chairmanship of India, the group will try to find out how to better equip the multilateral development banks, the major catalysts of development, to meet the global challenges of the 21st century. Remembering the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi on this occasion, Shri Tomar quoted him and welcomed the delegates on behalf of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and all citizens of India, wishing success to the meeting.

Union Minister Shri Paras said in the meeting that India’s effort is to facilitate constructive dialogue, create, share knowledge and share the collective aspiration for a secure, peaceful and prosperous world. We have to work together in the direction. He said that during India’s presidency of the G-20, it is our responsibility to advance progress and ensure that the international financial architecture today is well equipped to meet the acute challenges and provide maximum support to vulnerable groups. The Prime Minister Shri Modi, in his address to the World Economic Forum, Davos Summit, deliberated upon whether the multilateral organizations are ready to meet the challenges of the new world order. This working group is committed to meeting these challenges and in order to enhance their contribution to development financing towards meeting the development goals, this group may explore options to strengthen these organizations. It is imperative to urgently identify such systems that enable the financial assistance provided by international financial institutions is effectively responsive to the needs. This is important for the low income and developing countries, as they are the major beneficiaries of these resources. Countries most affected by rising debt, again are the low-income countries and most are the middle-income countries. The Working Group can deliberate upon how policy initiatives can address the worsening credit situation. It is the hope that with a diverse array of eminent experts from around the world, the International Financial Architecture Working Group is better poised in coordinating the G20 efforts towards developmental financing, supporting vulnerable countries, maintain financial stability and achieve the goal of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’.

The meeting was attended by IFA co-chairs Mr. William Roos (France), Byungsik Jung (South Korea), Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Finance, Smt. Manisha Sinha, RBI Advisor Smt. Mahua Rai were among dignitaries present.

Bhupender Yadav calls for need to shift from spreading information to spreading awareness

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Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri Bhupender Yadav has said  that we now need to shift gears from spreading information to spreading awareness. Addressing the ‘National workshop on LiFE’ he said everyone has to introspect on whether his/her actions are LiFE-conscious. He highlighted the need for environmental sense on the lines of civic sense and moral sense. Shri Yadav said there is imminent necessity of social consciousness around  LiFe actions.

The workshop saw participation of about 60 ‘Environmental Information, Awareness, Capacity Building and Livelihood Programme (EIACP) Centres across the country . The Minister acknowledged the work done by the Centres for promotion of Mission LiFE.

The new logo of EIACP as well as an Infographic Booklet ‘Lexicon of LiFE: A-Z of Sustainable Lifestyle’ was also released by Shri Yadav. The booklet aimed for students highlights the simple changes that an individual needs to adopt in order to chart out a pathway towards sustainable lifestyle in a fun way.

As per the mandate of EIACP, the activities of the Programme Centres are to be aligned  with ‘Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE) introduced by  Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi at COP 26 in Glasgow.

The  Minister inaugurated an exhibition cum sale prepared by students trained under Green Skill Development Programme of EIACP. He interacted with the Centres at their stalls and appreciated the variety of products, publications and applications prepared by the Centres.

The second half of the Workshop consisted of a technical session where the EIACP Centres were given an orientation and divided in seven clusters based on the seven themes of LiFE. Each cluster then had a breakaway Session wherein they brainstormed and came up with ideas that can be undertaken on that theme. These were in terms of creativity, innovation, conservation and awareness.  The same will be systematically incorporated in the calendar of activities of the EIACP.

Mission LiFE, Bhupender Yadav

Simultaneously more than 150 school students visited the Ministry. They were taken on a guided tour across the exhibition and the Ministry. The students were sensitised about Lifestyle for Environment and also how MoEF&CC has incorporated that in design of IPB as a green building. The students clicked pictures with Prakriti at the photobooth. They were given LiFE badges and also a copy of the A-Z booklet along with their photograph.