Union budget lays foundation for digitally empowered India: NITI Aayog VC Rajiv Kumar

Hyderabad: Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said the unifying theme for 2022-23 financial year budget was to lay solid foundation for achieving the vision of digitally empowered India with world class infrastructure with focus on globally comparable education and health sectors in the next 25 years. “The union Budget 2022-23 is not an ‘election’ […]

Hyderabad: Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said the unifying theme for 2022-23 financial year budget was to lay solid foundation for achieving the vision of digitally empowered India with world class infrastructure with focus on globally comparable education and health sectors in the next 25 years.

“The union Budget 2022-23 is not an ‘election’ budget as many had expected it to be as the Central Government showed a clear intent that good economics would also make good politics,” Rajiv Kumar said while addressing at ASCI’s public lecture on “Budget for 2022-23 and India’s Economic Prospects” on Tuesday.

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He said the 2022-2023 financial year budget focus was to address the constraints, which create hurdles in the path of digital revolution. This apart, it was aimed for propelling growth and triggering private investment to create employment, he said.

Innovation, Investments, Inclusion and Integration constitute the four pillars of the 2022-23 financial year budget. In terms of Innovation, the budget clearly mentioned about promotion of Kisan Drones, eSkill labs, Maths and Science labs, he said.

Regarding Integration, the GatiShakti plan was a key to ensure seamless connectivity for entire connectivity (Roadways, Highways, and Railways etc).

As many as 400 Vande Bharat trains were proposed and establishment of 100 Cargo terminals are means to cut down the logistics cost in the country, which is 14 percent compared to the global average of nine percent, he explained.

To ensure investments, the government was supporting the manufacturing sector. Nearly 68 per cent of all the defence capital procurement would be from local companies, new policy for the special economic zone and Emergency Credit Line guarantee Scheme were a few measures to mention, he said.

The Central Government aims at inclusive growth with efficient delivery of Public Services (Swachh Bharat, Ujjwala Yojana, JanDhan Yojana etc), reaching out to the people on the unprecedented scale, steps for achieving Open Defecation Free-India and for the first time education sector saw financial allocation crossing Rs.1 lakh crores.

ASCI, Chairman of the Court of Governors, K. Padmanabhaiah said the budget this time has been welcomed by one and all. It aims capital intensive growth and expenditure earmarked for this budget was 25 per cent higher than the last financial year’s revised budget estimates.

In the opening remarks, he said the thrust was on development of infrastructure, including expressways, railways and other projects. In this context, the first question arises as to whether the government has the capacity to spend this quantum of money ‘productively’ and whether it would eventually crowd in private investments, he said.

The budget was based on a few assumptions, including market borrowing target, which was very large. This apart, the government’s resources to generate revenue through taxes and other means have not been great, he said.

Welcoming the budget, he said there are few areas, which need to be looked into. The MSME sector provides lot of employment but there was nothing mentioned about the sector, he pointed out.

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