Although ‘annual’ budgets seldom look beyond the implied period, this year’s Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman is an exception of gigantic proportions. It is a budget that visualises what a developed India looks like economically and socially and how, when and with whose participation the present leadership plans to get us there.
This year’s budget comes against the backdrop of the Ukraine war, record-setting inflation afflicting major economies, the steep slowdown of the Chinese economy – the driver for global growth over the past few decades – and finally, a possible global recession.Yet, despite these global headwinds, and the fast-approaching General Election, the budget focuses on the Narendra Modi government’s blueprint for making India a developed country during the Amrit Kaal ahead.
The government’s confidence to focus on long-term, transformational goals comes from its performance track record. Under the Modi government, the Indian economy has outgrown the South Korean, Canadian, Italian, French and British economies over the last nine years to become the fifth largest economy in the world. Moreover, it is the fastest-growing large economy today, with an inflation rate that is the envy of its neighbours and most developed economies. Couple this with the ‘Nation first’ ideology of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the nature of this budget comes as no surprise.
Going through the budget speech delivered by the Finance Minister, the vision for a developed India becomes clear. It is an India with world-class public infrastructure; a country in which every citizen can live with dignity. It is a healthy India with healthy citizens, land, and environment; a country that equips every citizen to contribute to its economic growth and organises them to obtain a fair share of that growth.
This budget has allocated a record-breaking Rs 13.7 lakh crore for building public infrastructure – roadways, railways, airports, seaports, inland waterways, mobile and high-speed internet connectivity. In addition, this budget also makes huge allocations to improve private infrastructure for the poor so they can live with dignity: a life where every citizen has a pucca home to dwell in, with water and sanitation facilities; access to electricity, cooking gas, and roads, as well as health insurance and social security.
The vision continues beyond. Every individual, especially the youth, are equipped with education and skills to enhance their living standards while contributing to the country’s growth.
A developed India will be a healthy India, a green nation. A country where its land, environment and citizens are healthy. India’s agriculture is going to see a paradigm shift towards more and more organic practices. Focus on improving access to information, best practices and technology will enhance land productivity, while optimising the usage of chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
Renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, hydel, ethanol and compressed biogas blending, adoption of electric vehicles are all to be encouraged. From food security, India will move towards nutrition security for every citizen. Native grains like millet – ‘Shri Anna’ — and health practices like yoga will play a significant role in this transformation.
Until recently, India could only dream of catching up with the advanced world, especially in technology. The Covid experience involving indigenous vaccine discovery and production at scale, to using digital technology (CoWin) for fast distribution on the one hand and the innovations in financial technology with UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and their rapid adoption making India the numero uno in digital transactions have shown the world that India’s “techade” has arrived. India will now focus on using technologies like Artificial Intelligence, hydrogen cells, drones, 5G and many more to achieve rapid economic development. A developed India will be a leader in technology innovation and its usage to improve Indians’ lives.
The public and private sectors are the two major organised formal sectors in every world economy. Capitalist USA to Communist China, these are the only two large-scale formal sectors powering the economy. Imbalances in negotiating power arise from this structure where individual, small-scale producers and service providers are disadvantaged.
The recent apprehensions over agricultural reforms introduced via ‘Farm laws’ are an example. This budget lays a clear path for equalising this imbalance via the cooperative sector. Women, farmers, vishwakarma, small businessmen & producers – all will be encouraged to organise into cooperatives or collectives, enabling them to access finance, expertise and markets easily. Amul has been a great example.
A developed India will be an India where economic participation is not disadvantaged due to lack of scale. This is undoubtedly a path-breaking initiative that can provide a new path to the world if India makes it a success.
To sum it up, this budget provides a glimpse of what this government envisages for India@100 and lays a solid foundation to achieve it.
(The author is BJP TS spokesperson)
