Union Budget 2020-21 provides an additional 69,000 crore rupees for the health sector. The Finance Minister proposed to expand Jan Aushadhi Kendras in all districts of the country to provide medicines at affordable rates. She announced a 99,300 crore rupee outlay for education sector in 2020-21 and 3,000 crore rupees for skill development.
She announced that degree-level full-fledged online education programme will be offered by the top 100 institutions in the country.
Further, she said, Urban local bodies across the country will provide internships for young engineers for a period of up to one year. External commercial borrowings and FDI will be leveraged to improve the education system.
Total allocation for Swachh Bharat Mission is around 12,300 crore rupees for this year. Ms Sitharaman said government is committed to ODF Plus, in order to sustain ODF behaviour and ensure that no one is left behind. She said 3.6 lakh crore rupees has been approved for Jal Jeevan Mission.
100 more airports will also be developed by 2024 to support the UDAN scheme. The Finance Minister said 1.7 lakh crore rupees will be provided for transport infrastructure in the coming financial year.
She added that 22,000 crore rupees will be provided to power and renewable energy sector in 2020-21. She urged all states and Union Territories to replace conventional energy meters by pre-paid smart meters in three years. She said this will give consumers the freedom to choose suppliers and rates as per their requirements.
The Minister said policy for private sector to build Data Centre Parks throughout the country will be brought soon. She highlighted government’s vision that all public institutions be provided with digital connectivity.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman also tabled the Union Budget 2020-21 in the Rajya Sabha this afternoon. Later, the House adjourned for the day.
Discussion about this post