Budget statement 2023

For India, the year 2022 was special! It marked the 75th year of India’s Independence and India became the world’s fifth-largest economy, measured in current dollars. The Economic Survey projects a growth of 7% in real terms for year ending March 2023 with GDP in nominal terms of around USD 3.5 trillion. India’s economic growth has been principally led by private consumption and capital formation. It has helped generate employment, as seen in the declining urban unemployment rate and in the growth of registrations in the Employee Provident Fund. The fundamentals of the Indian economy are definitely sound, as it enters its Amrit Kaal, the 25-year journey towards its centenary as a modern, independent nation with an economic agenda of providing opportunities for citizens (with focus on the youth), growth and job creation; along with having a strong and stable macro-economic environment. This is the context in which the Finance Minister announced the Union Budget 2023. The Finance Minister highlighted the resilience in the Indian economy and noted that despite the massive slowdown caused by Covid-19 and other global adverse events, the country is expected to grow at around 7%. The budgeted fiscal deficit for FY 2023-24 is pegged at 5.9%. The Finance Minister in her Budget Speech reiterated her commitment of staying in course of reducing the fiscal deficit to below 4.5% by 2025-26. The announcements made in the Union Budget 2023 focusses on 7 priorities to prepare the nation for the Amrit Kaal. The priorities, which are inter-woven in the budget proposals, are

1. Inclusive Development
2. Reaching the Last Mile
3. Youth Power
4. Financial Sector
5. Green Growth
6. Infrastructure and Investment, and
7. Unleashing the Potential.

The government has been focusing on promoting a cooperative-based economic development model. The Government’s focus on Inclusive development rests on 3 pillars

• Agriculture and Cooperatives through, amongst other things, building an accessible, inclusive and informative digital public infrastructure for farmers, setting up of Agriculture Accelerator Fund for encouraging innovative startups in rural areas; a more targeted funding of INR 20 lakh crore for animal husbandry, dairies and fisheries sector; transforming India into a global hub for Millets ‘Shri Anna’; together with setting up of widely available storage capacity and preparation of a national cooperative database for country-wide mapping of cooperative societies
• Health through setting up of 157 new nursing colleges, launch of programme to promote research in Pharmaceuticals, promotion of joint public and private research via select Indian Council of Medical Research labs
• Education and Skilling which would include setting up of National Digital Library for children and adolescents, revamped Teachers’ training via District Institutes of Education and Training. The priority of Reaching the last mile envisages launching of Pradhan Mantri Development Mission for the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, financial assistance for sustainable micro irrigation in drought prone regions of the state of Karnataka, recruiting around 38,800 teachers for the 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools serving 3.5 lakh tribal students.