Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget for the year 2022-23, laying the blueprint for steering the country’s economy over the next 25 years.
The Union Budget seeks to complement macro-economic level growth with a focus on micro-economic level all inclusive welfare.
Here are the key highlights from this year’s budget.
Digital Rupee
One of the major highlights in this budget has been the announcement of new digital rupee powered by blockchain technology that will be issued by the Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23.
The digital rupee along with the proposal to tax virtual assets at 30% will pave way for regulating mushrooming private cryptocurrencies which has serious implication on national security.
Gati Shakti Plan
The ₹100 lakh crore PM Gati Shakti Plan received its first ever outlay of ₹20,000 crores in this budget. Under the Gati Shakti Plan, India’s National Highways network will be expanded by 25,000 kms in 2022-23.
Apart from highways, other modes of transport are also being given a boost.
400 new generation Vande Bharat trains will be manufactured in the next 3 years.
100 PM Gati Shakti terminals will be set up in the next three years.
5G
India is all set to go 5G with commercial services starting from 2022-23. FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced that 5G spectrum auctions would commence later this year.
A scheme for design-led manufacturing in 5G will also be introduced as part of the PLI scheme to boost local manufacturing of 5G phones.
Housing And Tap Water For All
₹48,000 crores has been allocated for construction of 80 lakh houses under PM Awas Yojana in rural and urban areas for the year 2022-23.
₹60,000 crores has been allocated to provide tap water connections to 3.8 crore households in the same year.
Financial Inclusion
All of the 1.5 lakh post offices in the country will be on-boarded to the core banking system. Post Office account holders will thus be able to avail services like net banking, mobile banking, ATMs, etc. This will benefit farmers, senior citizens and those living in rural areas.
Apart from this, 75 digital banks in 75 districts will be set up by scheduled commercial banks to encourage digital payments.
Educating New India
The Modi government plans to establish a digital university which will provide access to world-class education to students across the country.
The ‘One class, One TV channel’ program of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels, which will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1 to 12.
Cleaner and Greener India
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government will bring a battery swapping policy to boost use of electric vehicles in the country.
The Modi Govt will also launch Sovereign Green Bonds in FY 23 to fund green infrastructure.
Funds will also be used for projects that will help reduce carbon intensity of the economy.
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