Union Budget 2023-2024: Priority 4: Unleashing the Potential

1 Feb 2023 , 03:18 PM

 

Focus area	Measures announced
Mission Karmayogi	Centre, States and Union Territories are making and implementing capacity-building plans for civil servants.  The government has launched an integrated online training platform, iGOT Karmayogi, to provide continuous learning opportunities for lakhs of government employees to upgrade their skills and facilitate people-centric approach.  For enhancing ease of doing business, more than 39,000 compliances have been reduced and more than 3,400 legal provisions have been decriminalized.  For furthering the trust-based governance, government has introduced the Jan Vishwas Bill to amend 42 Central Acts.  This Budget proposes a series of measures to unleash the potential of our economy.
Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence	For realizing the vision of “Make AI in India and Make AI work for India”, three centres of excellence for Artificial Intelligence will be set-up in top educational institutions.  Leading industry players will partner in conducting interdisciplinary research, develop cutting-edge applications and scalable problem solutions in the areas of agriculture, health, and sustainable cities.
National Data Governance Policy	A National Data Governance Policy will be brought out. This will enable access to anonymized data.
Simplification of Know Your Customer (KYC) process	The KYC process will be simplified adopting a ‘risk-based’ instead of ‘one size fits all’ approach.  The financial sector regulators will also be encouraged to have a KYC system fully amenable to meet the needs of Digital India.
One stop solution for identity and address updating	A one stop solution for reconciliation and updating of identity and address of individuals maintained by various government agencies, regulators and regulated entities will be established using DigiLocker service and Aadhaar as foundational identity.
Common Business Identifier	For the business establishments required to have a Permanent Account Number (PAN), the PAN will be used as the common identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies.
Unified Filing Process	For obviating the need for separate submission of same information to different government agencies, a system of ‘Unified Filing Process’ will be set-up.  Such filing of information or return in simplified forms on a common portal, will be shared with other agencies as per filer’s choice.
Vivad se Vishwas I – Relief for MSMEs	In cases of failure by MSMEs to execute contracts during the Covid period, 95% of the forfeited amount relating to bid or performance security, will be returned to them by government and government undertakings.  This will provide relief to MSMEs.
Vivad se Vishwas II – Settling Contractual Disputes	To settle contractual disputes of government and government undertakings, wherein arbitral award is under challenge in a court, a voluntary settlement scheme with standardized terms will be introduced.  This will be done by offering graded settlement terms depending on pendency level of the dispute.
State Support Mission	The State Support Mission of NITI Aayog will be continued for three years.
Result Based Financing	To better allocate scarce resources for competing development needs, the financing of select schemes will be changed, on a pilot basis, from ‘input-based’ to ‘result-based’.
E-Courts	For efficient administration of justice, Phase-3 of the E-Courts project will be launched with an outlay of Rs 7,000 crore.
Fintech Services	To enable more Fintech innovative services, the scope of documents available in DigiLocker for individuals will be expanded.
Entity DigiLocker	An Entity DigiLocker will be set up for use by MSMEs, large business and charitable trusts. This will be towards storing and sharing documents online securely, whenever needed, with various authorities, regulators, banks and other business entities.
5G Services	100 labs for developing applications using 5G services will be set up in engineering institutions to realize a new range of opportunities, business models, and employment potential.  The labs will cover, among others, applications such as smart classrooms, precision farming, intelligent transport systems, and health care applications.
Lab Grown Diamonds (LGD)	To encourage indigenous production of LGD seeds and machines and to reduce import dependency, a research and development grant will be provided to one of the IITs for five years.  To reduce the cost of production, a proposal to review the custom duty rate on LGD seeds will be indicated.