Budget Focuses On Bharat, Status Quo for India

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Infrastructure Sector Remains In Focus

Building rural infrastructure is one of the key focus areas of the budget. The total amount allocated for building rural infrastructure and livelihood is 14.34 lakh crore. The target is to build 3.17 lakh kilometers of rural roads, 51 lakh new rural houses, 1.88 crore toilets, and to provide 1.75 crore new household electric connections.

The budgetary allocation of National Highways has pegged at Rs. 71,000 crores, up from Rs. 61,000 crore allocated during 2017-18. The Cabinet has approved the investment proposal for the Bharatmala Pariyojana (BMP) Phase I  for development/upgradation of about 35,000 km of National Highways (NHs) with an estimated cost of Rs.5,35,000 crore. The Bharatmala Pariyojana is crucial for connecting the remote and backward areas with the borders of the country and it is a key enabler of other key schemes, such as Sagarmala, Dedicated Freight Corridors, Industrial Corridors, UDAN-RCS, BharatNet, Digital India and Make in India. For other infrastructure projects such as NH (O), Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in North East (SARDP-NE), Externally Aided Projects (EAP) and Roads Projects in Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas (LWE), an additional outlay of Rs.1,57,324 crore has been allocated. The NHAI will also use innovative monetizing structures like Toll, Operate and Transfer (TOT) and Infrastructure Investment Funds (InvITs) for raising equity from the market for its road assets. The Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) ministry’s budgetary provisions have been pegged at over Rs. 41,765 crores.

The pace of infrastructure related projects is remarkable! PM Modi himself reviews the progress made on these projects on a regular basis. As of now, infrastructure projects of worth 9.46 lakh crore have been facilitated and fast-tracked by the government. The smart urban infrastructure is a top priority of the government. The ‘Smart Cities Mission’ launched in 2015, is progressing well. The target of Smart Cities Mission is to develop 100 smart cities all over the country and as of now, 99 Cities have been selected (through a unique competitive process called ‘smart city challenge.’) with an estimated cost of 2.04 lakh crore. The Projects of worth 2350 crore have been completed and works of 20,852 crores are in progress. Other key infrastructure projects are HRIDAY (Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana) and AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation).

The infrastructure and connectivity related works in the border areas of the country have been fast-tracked. The Rohtang tunnel has been completed and the contract related process for the construction of Zozila Pass is going on. In the budget, the government has proposed to take up construction of the tunnel under Sela Pass too.

Railways and Technology Get Big Boost

The Railways’ Capex has been pegged at Rs. 1,48,528 crore. Maintenance and Safety with the help of technology will be the main priority of Railways. Track doubling, redeveloping railway stations, installing CCTV cameras, providing Wi-Fi facility, increasing the use of ‘Fog Safe’ and ‘Train Protection’ kind of technologies and renewal of over 3600 km of tracks are some of the targeted areas of the Railways budget.

The Department of Science & Technology will launch a Mission on Cyber-Physical Systems to support the establishment of centres of excellence for research, training, and skilling in robotics, artificial intelligence, digital/smart manufacturing, big data, quantum communication and IoT. For 2018-19 the allocation for Digital India programme is Rs. 3073 crore, almost a double of previous year’s budget. The task of connecting 1 lakh gram panchayats under the first phase of Bharat Net Project has been completed. Bharat Net is an initiative to provide high-speed broadband internet to all rural areas by March 2019. By December 2018, Bharat Net will provide connectivity to all 250,000-gram panchayats across the country. Bharat Net is the infrastructure backbone of Digital India. This year, the government has announced to set up five lakh Wi-Fi hotspots too and Rs. 10000 crores are allocated for establishing the Telecom infrastructure.

The focus of the budget is on leveraging the cutting edge technologies and promoting the culture of R&D related to advanced technologies in the country. The Department of Telecom will facilitate the establishment of an indigenous 5G Test Bed at IIT, Chennai.

What Is In Store For Healthcare Sector

The new scheme ‘Ayushman Bharat’ presented in the budget will deal with some of the most serious needs of the poor and lower middle-class families of the country. In the budget, two major initiatives were announced as part of the ‘Ayushman Bharat’ programme.

–Government has launched a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) by providing them a coverage of up to 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization, these families will be able to get free treatment up to Rs. 5 lakhs per annum in the identified hospitals. The National Health Protection Scheme is the world’s largest government-funded healthcare programme.

–Government will establish 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres which will provide comprehensive health care services to the people, a sum of 1200 crore is allocated for this flagship programme. Private sector (through their CSR initiatives) and philanthropic organizations will be given an opportunity to adopt these centres. Apart from this, Government has decided to allocate additional 600 crores to provide nutritional support to all TB patients at the rate of Rs. 500 per month for the duration of their treatment. There is a plan to set up 24 new Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals by upgrading existing district hospitals to ensure that there is at least 1 Medical College for every 3 Parliamentary Constituencies and at least 1 Government Medical College in each State of the country.

Efforts To Improve EODB

In the last three and a half years, Modi government has taken a number of steps to improve the ease of doing business (EODB) ranking of India by improving the country’s status on indicators like construction permits, the ease of getting credit, minority investor protection, paying taxes, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. To continue the trajectory of EODB reforms, the government has identified 372 specific business reform actions. All States have taken up these reforms in a mission mode and constructively competing with each other.

To ease the cross-border trade and to align some provisions in line with the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement, the Finance minister has proposed to make certain amendments to the Customs Act, 1962. These amendments are crucial for improving India’s ranking on cross-border trade. In the budget 2018-19, considerable relief has been provided for the companies facing insolvency proceedings. Finance Minister has announced that to simplify the dispute resolution processes and to reduce litigation, certain amendments are being made such as pre-notice consultation, definite timelines for adjudication and deemed closure of cases if those timelines are not adhered to.

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