Category: Economy Current Affairs

The Union Budget for the financial year 2023-2024 was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1st, 2023. She referred to the seven priorities for the government as “Saptarishi”.

7 Priorities Of Union Budget 2023-2024

1. Inclusive development
2. Reaching the last mile
3. Infrastructure and investment
4. Unleashing potential
5. Green growth
6. Youth Power
7. Financial Sector

Inclusive development

Inclusive development by focusing on farmers, OBC, SC & ST, financially weaker sections of the society, divyangjan, etc.

• The creation of digital public infrastructure for farmers
• Launch of ANB Horticulture Clean Plant program
• Vision to make India a global hub for millets, ‘Sree Anna’
• Setting up agriculture accelerator fund
• Targeted funding of ₹20 lakh crore agricultural credit focused at animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries sector.
• Formation of a wide network of storage spaces for farmers.
• Establishment of 157 new nursing colleges.
• Launch of ‘Sickle Cell Anaemia elimination Mission’
• Boost to Joint Public and Private Medical Research via selected ICMR labs
• Launch of programme to encourage research in India’s pharma sector
• Set up of national digital library for adolescents and children
• Physical libraries to be set up at Panchayat and ward levels.
• Revamped teacher’s training via District Institutes of Education and Training.

Reaching the last mile

To provide benefit of its welfare schemes to the last section of the society. Following are the schemes to be launched by the government to ensure its last mile reach.

• Pradhanmantri (particularly vulnerable tribal groups) PVTG Development mission for the development of vulnerable tribal groups in next three years.
• Financial assistance to promote sustainable micro irrigation in Karnataka’s drought prone areas.
• Increasing the number of teachers in the Eklavya Model Residential Schools
• Launch of Bharat(SHRI) for the digitization of ancient inscriptions.

Infrastructure and Investment

To give a push to the country’s infrastructure and investment sector, the Union Govt made following announcements in the Union Budget 2023.

• The government has announced to increase the capital investment outlay by 33.4% to ₹10 lakh crore.
• Extension of 50 year interest free loan to State Government for an incentivised infrastructure investment
• Railways capital outlay to increased by 2.4 lakh crore
• Launch of around 100 transport infrastructure projects to increase connectivity.
• Creation of Urban Infrastructure Development Fund to build modern infrastructure in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

Unleashing the potential

For the optimum utilisation of the country’s potential in all fronts following major policies and programs were announced in Budget 2023.

• Establishment of three artificial intelligence centres in educational institutes.
• Formation of a national data governance policy
• Relaxation in rules and policy for an easier and lesser strict contract execution for MSMEs.
• Launch of the third phase of e-courts
• Formation of more than 100 labs for 5 services based application development.
• Enhancement of research in the field of Lab Grown Diamond..

Green Growth

• Launch of PM Pranam to encourage the use of alternative fertilisers.
• Set up of more than 500 new ‘Waste to Wealth’ plants under GOBARdhan scheme.
• Launch of MISHTI program to carry out mangroove plantation along coastline.

Youth Power

• Launch of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana(PMKVY) 4.0. The new program will also fund courses like 3D printing, coding, AI, robotics, etc.
• Selection of 50 locations for their development as prime tourist spots of the country.
• Unity Malls will be set up by every state for the promotion and sale of One District, One Product(ODOP), GI tagged articles, and handicraft products.

Financial Sector

• Announcement to set up a National Financial Information registry to promote financial inclusion.
• Establishment of Central Data Processing Centre to speed up administrative work under the Companies Act.
• Launch of Credit Guarantee Scheme for MSMEs.
• Launch a one-time small savings scheme for a 2 year period for women, named as ‘Mahila Samman Bachat Patra’.
• Increase the maximum limit for senior citizens saving scheme from ₹15 lakh to ₹30 lakh.

The Halwa Ceremony was held at the Finance Ministry on January 26, 2023 to mark the beginning of printing for the Union Budget 2023-24. It was attended by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union MoS for Finance Dr Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, and senior officials. During the ceremony, the Finance Minister also took a tour of the Budget Press and reviewed preparations.

Budget 2023-2024 : Third paperless Budget

• The Budget documents will be available in English and Hindi on the Union Budget Mobile App on both Android and Apple platforms after the Budget Speech.
• The Union Government will present the Budget on February 1, 2023.
• This year’s Budget will be the third paperless Budget presented in Parliament. The first paperless Budget was presented in 2021.

About Halwa Ceremony

The Halwa Ceremony is an age-old tradition that marks the beginning of the printing of Budget documents and signifies the end of the Budget-making process. It is held at the Finance Ministry ahead of the Union Budget presentation in the parliament. During the ceremony, a sweet dish called Halwa is served to the officials who are involved in the preparation of the Budget. The ceremony signifies that the officials will now be “locked” in the ministry, and will not be able to leave until the Budget is presented. It’s also a way to indicate that the budget making process is complete and the document is ready to be presented in the parliament.

हिंदी में पढ़े

• An EY ((Ernst & Young Global Limited) report states that the Indian economy is likely to reach $26 trillion by the year 2047, which will also be the 100th year of India’s independence.
• According to this report named ‘India at 100: Realizing the Potential of 26 Trillion Economy’, in 2047 the average annual per capita income will reach 15 thousand dollars i.e. about 12.25 lakh rupees at the current exchange rate, It will be more than 6 times from today’s level.
• The report claims that by 2030, India would have overtaken Germany and Japan to become the world’s third largest economic superpower.
• India’s service related exports have increased at the rate of 14% in the last 2 decades to reach $ 25,450 million in 2021-22.

• The Central Government has re-appointed Michael Debabrata Patra as Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for an additional one-year term, effective January 15, 2023.
• Patra is a career central banker who has been with the RBI since 1985, and was originally appointed as Deputy Governor in January 2020 for a three-year term.
• As a Deputy Governor, Patra is a member of the monetary policy committee, which is responsible for making monetary policy decisions in India.
• Patra is currently responsible for overseeing several departments within the RBI, including the Monetary Policy Department, the Department of Economic and Policy Research, the Department of Statistics and Information Management, and more.

• Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) has appointed veteran banker Surinder Chawla as its new Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
• The appointment has been approved by the Reserve Bank of India for a period of three years.
• Surinder Chawla will replace Paytm Payments Bank CEO Satish Kumar Gupta, who retires in October 2022, with Deepender Singh Rathore serving as the interim CEO.
• Prior to joining PPBL, Chawla was working with RBL Bank, where he served as Head of Branch Banking and focused on expanding CASA base, fee revenue and cross-selling across channels.
• Surinder Chawla has had an illustrious career spanning over 28 years in Retail Banking in reputed institutions like HDFC Bank, RBL Bank, ABN AMRO Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.