Union Budget 2024-2025: Priority 3: Human Resource Development and Social Justice

23 Jul 2024 , 03:28 PM

Saturation approach

The government will be committed to all-round, all-pervasive and all-inclusive development of people, particularly, farmers, youth, women and poor. For achieving social justice comprehensively, the saturation approach of covering all eligible people through various programmes including those for education and health will be adopted to empower them by improving their capabilities.

The government will implement schemes meant for supporting economic activities by craftsmen, artisans, self-help groups, scheduled caste, schedule tribe and women entrepreneurs, and street vendors, such as PM Vishwakarma, PM SVANidhi,  National Livelihood Missions, and Stand-Up India will be stepped up.

Purvodaya

• The government will formulate a plan, Purvodaya, for the all-round development of the eastern region of the country covering Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. This will also cover human resource development, infrastructure, and generation of economic opportunities to make the region an engine to attain Viksit Bharat.
• On the Amritsar Kolkata Industrial Corridor, the government will support development of an industrial node at Gaya. This corridor will catalyze industrial development of the eastern region. The industrial node at Gaya will also be a good model for developing country’s ancient centres of cultural importance into future centres of modern economy. This model shall showcase “Vikas bhi Virasat bhi” in India’s growth trajectory.
• The government will also support development of road connectivity projects, namely (1) Patna-Purnea Expressway, (2) Buxar-Bhagalpur Expressway, (3) Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Vaishali and Darbhanga spurs, and (4) additional 2-lane bridge over river Ganga at Buxar at a total cost of ₹26,000 crore. Power projects, including setting up of a new 2400 MW power plant at Pirpainti, will be taken up at a cost of ₹21,400 crore. New airports, medical colleges and sports infrastructure in Bihar will be constructed.
• An additional allocation to support capital investments will be provided. The requests of Bihar Government for external assistance from multilateral development banks will be expedited.

Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act

• The government tries to make efforts to fulfil the commitments in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act. Recognizing the state’s need for a capital, we will facilitate special financial support through multilateral development agencies. In the current financial year ₹15,000 crore will be arranged, with additional amounts in future years.
• The government will be financing and early completion of the Polavaram Irrigation Project, which is the lifeline for Andhra Pradesh and its farmers.
• The government provide funds for essential infrastructure such as water, power, railways and roads in Kopparthy node on the Vishakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor and Orvakal node on Hyderabad-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor. An additional allocation will be provided this year towards capital investment for economic growth.
• The government will provide grants for backward regions of Rayalaseema, Prakasam and North Coastal Andhra, as stated in the Act, will also be provided.

PM Awas Yojana

• PM Awas Yojana in rural and urban areas in the country have been announced, for which the necessary allocations are being made.

Women-led development

• The budget carries an allocation of more than ₹3 lakh crore for schemes benefitting women and girls. This signals our government’s commitment to enhancing women’s role in economic development.

Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan

• The government will be launching Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan by adopting saturation coverage for tribal families in tribal-majority villages and aspirational districts. This will cover 63,000 villages benefitting 5 crore tribal people.

Bank branches in North-Eastern Region

• More than 100 branches of India Post Payment Bank will be set up in the North East region to expand the banking services.
• This year, the government has made a provision of ₹2.66 lakh crore for rural development including rural infrastructure.