Presenting the first Union Budget of the third decade of 21st century, Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, today unveiled a series of far-reaching reforms, aimed at energizing the Indian economy through a combination of short-term, medium-term, and long-term measures.
The Key Highlights of Union Budget 2020-21 are as follows:
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
- Rs. 2.83 lakh crore to be allocated for the following 16 Action Points:
- Rs. 1.60 lakh crore for Agriculture, Irrigation & allied activities.
- Rs. 1.23 lakh crore for Rural development & Panchayati Raj. –
- Agriculture credit:
- Rs. 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.
- Comprehensive measures for 100 water-stressed districts proposed.
- Blue Economy:
- Rs. 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.
- Kisan Rail to be setup by Indian Railways through PPP:
- To build a seamless national cold supply chain for perishables (milk, meat, fish, etc.
- Express and Freight trains to have refrigerated coaches.
- Krishi Udaan to be launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation:
- Both international and national routes to be covered.
- North-East and tribal districts to realize Improved value of agri-products.
- One-Product One-District for better marketing and export in the Horticulture sector.
- Balanced use of all kinds of fertilizers – traditional organic and innovative fertilizers.
- Measures for organic, natural, and integrated farming:
- Jaivik Kheti Portal – online national organic products market to be strengthened.
- Zero-Budget Natural Farming (mentioned in July 2019 Budget) to be included.
o Integrated Farming Systems in rain-fed areas to be expanded.
o Multi-tier cropping, bee-keeping, solar pumps, solar energy production in non-cropping season to be added.
- PM-KUSUM to be expanded:
- 20 lakh farmers to be provided for setting up stand-alone solar pumps.
- Another 15 lakh farmers to be helped to solarise their grid-connected pump sets.
- Scheme to enable farmers to set up solar power generation capacity on their fallow/barren lands and to sell it to the grid.
- 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.
- Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana – 0.5 crore households mobilized with 58 lakh SHGs for poverty alleviation.
