Gist of YOJANA : - March 2021

Union Budget 2021-22

Introduction

• The Minister of Finance of the Union has presented the Budget for 2020-21. Given below are important macroeconomic indicators and proposed tax reforms in India.
• Moreover, the Union Budget 2021 lays emphasis on the seven pillars for invigorating the economy
  • Health and success
  • Physical and Monetary capital and infrastructure
  • Inclusive Development for Aspirational India
  • Reinvigorating Human resources, Innovate and Research & Development
  • Minimum Government with Maximum Governance
• Furthermore, vital announcements enclosed a slew of hikes in custom duty to benefit MAKE IN INDIA, varied infrastructure pledges to poll-bound stats, and a proposal to disinvest two additional PSBs and general insurance organization.
• Three prominent themes of the Budget:
• • Aspirational India - better standards of living with access to health, education and better jobs for all sections of the society
  • Economic Development for all - “Sabka Saath , Sabka Vikas , Sabka Vishwas”.
  • Caring Society - both humane and compassionate; Antyodaya as an article of faith.
  • Three broad themes are held together by:
    • Corruption free, policy-driven Good Governance.
    • Clean and sound financial sector.
  • Ease of Living underlined by the three themes of Union Budget 2020-21.
• Three components of Aspirational India:
  • Agriculture, Irrigation, and Rural Development
  • Wellness, Water, and Sanitation
  • Education and Skills
• Sixteen Action Points for Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural Development:
  • 2.83 lakh crore to be allocated for the 16 Action Points
  • 1.60 lakh crore for Agriculture, Irrigation & allied activities
  • 1.23 lakh crore for Rural development & Panchayati Raj
• Agriculture credit:
  • 15 lakh crore target set for the year 2020-21.
  • PM-KISAN beneficiaries to be covered under the KCC scheme.
  • NABARD Re-finance Scheme to be further expanded.
• Blue Economy:
  • 1 lakh crore fisheries’ exports to be achieved by 2024-25.
  • 200 lakh tonnes fish production targeted by 2022-23.
  • 3477 Sagar Mitras and 500 Fish Farmer Producer Organisations to involve youth in fisheries extension.
  • Growing of algae, sea-weed and cage culture to be promoted.
  • Framework for development, management and conservation of marine fishery resources.
• Village Storage Scheme:
  • To be run by the SHGs to provide farmers a good holding capacity and reduce their logistics cost.
  • Women, SHGs to regain their position as Dhaanya Lakshmi.
  • NABARD to map and geo-tag agri-warehouses, cold storages, reefer van facilities, etc.
  • Warehousing in line with Warehouse Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) norms:
  • Viability Gap Funding for setting up such efficient warehouses at the block/taluk level.
  • Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) to undertake such warehouse building.
  • Financing on Negotiable Warehousing Receipts (e-NWR) to be integrated with e-NAM.
  • State governments who undertake implementation of model laws (issued by the Central government) to be encouraged.
• Livestock:
  • Doubling of milk processing capacity to 108 million MT from 53.5 million MT by 2025.
  • Artificial insemination to be increased to 70% from the present 30%.
  • MNREGS to be dovetailed to develop fodder farms.
  • Foot and Mouth Disease, Brucellosis in cattle and Peste Des Petits ruminants (PPR) in sheep and goat to be eliminated by 2025.
• Wellness, Water and Sanitation:
  • 69,000 crore allocated for overall Healthcare sector.
  • 6400 crore (out of Rs. 69,000 crore) for PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY):
  • More than 20,000 hospitals already empanelled under PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).
  • Viability Gap Funding window proposed for setting up hospitals in the PPP mode.
  • Aspirational Districts with no Ayushman empanelled hospitals to be covered in the first phase.
  • Targeting diseases with an appropriately designed preventive regime using Machine Learning and AI.
  • Jan Aushadhi Kendra Scheme to offer 2000 medicines and 300 surgicals in all districts by 2024.
• Education and Skills:
  • New Education Policy to be announced soon.
  • National Police University and National Forensic Science University proposed for policing science, forensic science, and cyber-forensics.
  • Degree level full-fledged online education program by Top-100 institutions in the National Institutional Ranking Framework.
  • Up to 1-year internship to fresh engineers to be provided by Urban Local Bodies.
  • Budget proposes to attach a medical college to an existing district hospital in PPP mode.
  • Special bridge courses to be designed by the Ministries of Health, and Skill Development:
  • To fulfill the demand for teachers, nurses, para-medical staff and care-givers abroad.
  • To bring in equivalence in the skill sets of the workforce and employers’ standards.
  • 150 higher educational institutions to start apprenticeship embedded degree/diploma courses by March 2021.
  • External Commercial Borrowings and FDI to be enabled for education sector.
  • Ind-SAT proposed for Asian and African countries as a part of Study in India program.
• Culture & Tourism:
  • Allocation of Rs. 2500 crore for 2020-21 for tourism promotion.
  • 3150 crore proposed for Ministry of Culture for 2020-21.
  • An Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation under Ministry of Culture proposed; with the status of a deemed University.
  • 5 archaeological sites to be developed as iconic sites with on-site Museums:
    • Rakhigarhi (Haryana)
    • Hastinapur (Uttar Pradesh)
    • Shivsagar (Assam)
    • Dholavira (Gujarat)
    • Adichanallur (Tamil Nadu)
  • Re-curation of the Indian Museum in Kolkata, announced by Prime Minister in January 2020.
  • Museum on Numismatics and Trade to be located in the historic Old Mint building in Kolkata.
  • 4 more museums from across the country to be taken up for renovation and re-curation.
  • Support for setting up of a Tribal Museum in Ranchi (Jharkhand).
  • Maritime museum to be set up at Lothal- the Harrapan age maritime site near Ahmedabad, by Ministry of Shipping.
  • State governments expected to develop a roadmap for certain identified destinations and formulate financial plans during 2021 against which specified grants to be made available to the States in 2020-21.
• Environment & Climate Change:
  • Allocation for this purpose to be Rs.4400 crore for 2020-21.
  • Proposed to advise the utilities to close the running old thermal power plants with carbon emission above the pre-set norms.
  • States that are formulating and implementing plans for ensuring cleaner air in cities above one million to be encouraged.
  • PM launched Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) with Secretariat in Delhi. Second such international initiative after International Solar Alliance.
• Financial Market:
  • Deepening Bond Market.
  • Certain specified categories of Government securities to be opened fully for non -resident investors also.
  • FPI limit in corporate bonds increased to 15% from 9% of its outstanding stock.
  • New legislation to be formulated for laying down a mechanism for netting of financial contracts.
  • Scope of credit default swaps to expand.
  • Debt Based Exchange Traded Fund expanded by a new Debt-ETF consisting primarily of Government Securities.
  • To give attractive access to retail investors, pension funds and long-term investors.
  • A Partial Credit Guarantee scheme for the NBFCs formulated post the Union budget 2019-20 to address their liquidity constraints.
  • New mechanism to be devised to further this.