Union Budget 2024: From farming, skilling to infrastructure, Sitharaman lists out nine priorities of Modi 3.0

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday (July 23) listed the 7 priorities of the government in Budget 2024-25. She presented the first Budget of the third term of the Narendra Modi government in Lok Sabha and scripted history by doing so for the seventh time in a row.

Here are the government's seven priorities in the Union Budget 2024-25:

Priority 1 in Budget -Productivity and Resilience in Agri

• Raising Productivity and Climate Resilient Varieties 
• Thrust on Natural Farming: 2 crore farmers to be supported in next 2 years(certificates)
• Atma Nirbharta in Oil Seeds
• Vegetable Production: Large Scale Clusters
• DPI in Agri Infrastructure: Coverage of Farmers and their Land in three years. Digital Crop Survey in 400 districts this year only. Issuance of Jan Samarth based certificates.
• Shrimp Brood Stocks. Shrimp Farming. 
• National Co-operation Policy for Co-operative Sector.

Priority Two in Budget – Skilling

• First Timers Scheme - 1 month wage to all persons newly entering the workforce in all formal sectors will be provided by the government in 3 installments. Direct benefit transfer to employees upto Rs 15,000 will be done. This will be applicable to those getting salary upto Rs 1 lakh per month.  2.1 crore youth to be benefitted
• Manufacturing Jobs Assistance- Incentive of specified scale directly to employee and employer in first 4 years of employment will be provided to employees entering manufacturing jobs. This will benefit 30 lakh youth and employers.
• Support to employers- Additional employment in all sectors within a salary of 1 lakh/month will be provided Rs 3,000 per month for 2 years to cover EPFO charges. This will incentivise additional employment of upto 50 lakh persons.
• 20 lakh youth will be skilled over 5 years. 
• Education Loans: Financial Support up to 10 lakhs for higher education in domestic institutions. Annual Interest Subvention for 3 percent

Priority 3 -Inclusive Development

• Towards achieving saturation of Social Justice
• PM Vishwakarma, Swanidhi, NRLM. 
• Purvodaya: A plan for all round development for eastern region of country covering br,jh,od,ap. This will cover human resource development. 
• Amritsar-Kolkata Corridor. It will catalyze industrial development for eastern region particularly Gaya. Vikas Bhi Virasat Bhi
• Patna Purniya , Buxar Bhagalpur, Bodhygaya-Rajgir-Dharbhnaga Expressways to be Developed and Bridge over Ganga in Buxar at Rs.2600 crore.
• New Medical Colleges and Sports Infra in Bihar will be constructed.
• Multilateral Bank Support to Bihar. 
• AP Reorganisation act: Recoginizing state’s need for capital a financial support will be provided through multilateral agencies. Rs.15,000 crore will be arranged in future years. 
• PMAY: 3 crore additional houses in rural and urban areas in the country
• Women Led Development: Budget carries an allocation more than Rs.3 lakh crore. 
• PM Jan Jatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan: Adopting saturation coverage in tribal families and aspirational districts.

Priority 4 in Budget Manufacturing and Services

• Will make MSME to compete globally
• Credit Guarantee for MSME.
• Build In House capability for MSMEs. 
• Paradigm change in New Credit assessment model for MSME for credit eligibility. 
• SMA Accounts for MSME in Stress. 
• MUDRA Loans: limit enhanced to 20 lakhs from 10 lakhs in Tarun category. 
• Converting trade receivables to cash: turnover brought down from Rs.500 to Rs.250 crore
• SIDBI branches in MSME Cluster: new branches to be opened in 3 years in MSME clusters over 3 years
• E-commerce export hubs: to enable traditional artisans and MSME to launch their product in international markets 
• A scheme to provide internship in top 500 companies to 1 crore youth in 5 years. They will gain exposure to real life business. Interns will be given Rs.5,000 per month along with one time assistance of Rs.6,000. 
• 12 industrial parks under National Industrial Corridor Program will be Sanctioned. 
• Rental housing for industrial workers will be facilitated in PPP Mode. 
• Shipping: Ownership leasing and flagging reforms will be initiated.
• Critical Minerals Mission: mandate will include tech development, skilled workforce and suitable financing mechanism.
• DPI Applications: Development of DPI applications. 
• Integrated tech platform for IBC services: consistency, transparency and better oversight. 
• Voluntary closure for LLPS. 
• IBC has resolved more than 1, 000 companies- giving Rs.3.3 lakh crore to creditors
• Debt Recovery: Additional tribunals to be established

Priority 5 in Budget Urban Development

• Urban Housing: Urban 2.0. one crore houses for urban poor, allocation of ten lakh crore rupees. 
• Enabling policies and regulations for transparent renting house markets
• Services for 100 large cities for urban development
• Street Markets: Svanidhi has transformed lives of street vendors. Support for urban haats 
• Stamp Duty: Encourage states to charge high stamp duty to moderate the rates for all. Slashing of duties for women

Priority – 6 Energy Security

• A policy document for energy pathways
• PM Suryaghar Muft Bijli Yojana: launched to install rooftop solar plants to enable one crore households to obtain free electricity for 300 units every month. Remarkable response from the public.
• Pump Storage Policy
• Newer tech for nuclear technology. 
• Advanced ultra super critical thermal power plants. 800 mw plants will be set up. 
• Dev of indigenous capacity
• Support to micro and small industries.

Priority – 7 Infrastructure

• Strong fiscal support to Infra over next 5 years
• This Year’s CAPEX allocation: Rs. Eleven Lakh Eleven Thousand One Hundred and Eleven Crore Rupees. 3.4 percent of GDP. 
• Private Investment in INFRA: Have to be Promoted through VGF 
• PMGSY 4.0 will be launched: 25,000 new rural habitations. 
• Irrigation and Flood: Plans to build flood control structure through financial support of Rs.11,500 crore. Kosi related flood mitigation will be taken
• ASSAM: Assistance to assam for flood management. 
• HP: assistance to state for reconstruction ravaged with floods
• Uttarakhand: Assistance to states
• Sikkim: Assistance to state
• Tourism: Vishnupath temple at Gaya and Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya will be constructed like Kashi Vishwanath corridor. Rajgir: preservation of hot springs. Development of NALANDA. 
• Support for development of Odisha’s temples, scenic beauties, natural landscapes and pristine beaches;

Priority 8: Innovation, Research & Development

• Govt will operationalize the Anusandhan National Research Fund for basic research and prototype development. 
• Further, Govt will set up a mechanism for spurring private sector-driven research and innovation at commercial scale with a financing pool of ₹ 1 lakh crore in line with the announcement in the interim budget. 
• With our continued emphasis on expanding the space economy by 5 times in the next 10 years, a venture capital fund of ₹ 1,000 crore will be set up. 

Priority 9: Next Generation Reforms

• States will be incentivized for Land-related reforms and actions within the next 3 years through appropriate fiscal support
• Land-related reforms and actions in Rural areas to cover land administration & planning. In Urban areas, it will cover urban planning, usage and building bylaws.
• Rural land related actions will include ULPIN or Bhu-Aadhaar for all lands, digitization of cadastral maps, survey of map sub-divisions as per current ownership, establishment of land registry, and linking to the farmers registry. These actions will facilitate credit flow  & other agri services
• Land records in urban areas will be digitized with GIS mapping. An IT based system for property record and tax administration will be established. It will improve the financial position of Urban Local Bodies.

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