Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented the Narendra Modi government’s last full budget before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Calling it the first budget in ‘Amrit Kaal’, the finance minister said the Indian economy is on a right track and heading towards a bright future. The budget is being keenly watched by all sections of the society, especially the middle class which has a lot of expectations from it.
Union Budget 2023 LIVE coverage
Here we bring you the LIVE twitter analysis of the Union Budget 2023 by Hindustan Times Editor-in-Chief Sukumar Ranganathan.
11:40 am: Data governance policy — will provide access to anonymized data; simplified KYC policy; one-stop solution to update address and identity (welcome step as anyone who has tried to get things changed can vouch)
11:36 am: Under Priority 3: focus on cities too. Cities to be incentivized to improve finances so that they can issue Munibonds
11:34 am: Railways gets 2.4 lakh crore as capital exp out of this; 50 additional airports etc will be improved for enhancing connectivity.
11:33 am: Priority 3: Infrastructure and Investment. Capital investment outlay being increased by 33% to 10 lakh crore — 3.3% of GDP (three times 2019-20 outlay). Big move. Productive spending. Will have significant cascading effect.
11: 27 am: Priority 2: reaching the last mile. A new mission for tribals is being launched to improve the lot of primitive and vulnerable groups. Move is in keeping with the BJP’s expanding focus on tribal communities — which it sees as the next big electoral frontier.
11:26 am: Under education, the emphasis will be on teacher training, creating a national digital library for children.
11:24 am: Still under inclusivity, the FM is now listing the health and education provisions in the budget. They include creating 157 new nursing colleges; boosting collaborative research by ICMR; boosting pharma research; facilitating manufacture of medical equipment…
11:22 am: As expected, there’s enough for agriculture in this budget — not surprising in a pre-poll year. To continue, other measures include strengthening co-operatives (which also means setting up new ones).
11: 21 am: Seven priorities of UB2022-23 according to FM. One, inclusivity. Significant under these are an Agriculture Accelerator Fund; making India a global hub for millets (also this week’s Brunch cover story); agricultural credit target increased to 20 lakh crore ….
11:14 am: Transformative opportunities: economically empowering women — transforming SHGs into large producer organisations; package for handicraft makers to improve quality/scale (will help SC/STs and OBCs, especially); tourism; green growth (investments and jobs)
11:07 am: Indian economy has gone from 9th largest to 5th largest in the world in the past nine years; economy has become more formalised: FM