While agriculture saw 5.9 per cent increase in budget allocation, rural development and health sector witnessed 11.8 per cent and 22.6 per cent increase in allocation respectively
The budget this year promises to benefit farmers, women, poor and other vulnerable sections.
Here are some of the highlights
Agriculture
5.9 per cent increase in budget over last year
- Rs 10 lakh crore target for agricultural credit in 2017-18
- Rs 9,000 crore to be spent to bring 40 per cent of cropped area under Fasal Bima Yojana Scheme. The current level is 30 per cent and the government plans to achieve 50 per cent by next year
- Rs 40,000 crore for the Long Term Irrigation Fund under NABARD
- Rs 1,900 crore to computerise and integrate 63,000 functional Primary Agriculture Credit societies under NABARD to ensure credit flow for small farmers
- Rs 5,000 crore given as initial corpus to Micro Irrigation Fund
- Rs 438.75 crore for e-NAM (National Agriculture Market) project. The number of e-NAMs to increase to 585 from 250
- Rs 2,000 crore given to new Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund. Its corpus to increase to Rs 8,000 crore in next three years
Rural development
11.8 per cent increase in budget over last year
- 10 million rural households to be brought out of poverty by 2019
- 50,000 Gram Panchayats to be poverty-free by 2019
- Rs 48,000 crore allocated to MGNREGA in 2017-18
- 1 million farm ponds to be completed by March 2017 under MGNREGA, which is double the target under the scheme
- Rs 23,000 crore allocated to Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana—Gramin to complete one crore houses by 2019. In 2016-17, allocation was Rs 15,000 crore.
- 100 per cent village electrification by May 2018
- Three-fold increase in allocation for Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme and Credit Support schemes
- 60 per cent sanitation coverage in rural India, which was 42 per cent in October 2014
- 28,000 arsenic and fluoride-affected habitations to get safe drinking water in the next four years under National Rural Drinking Water Programme
- 500,000 people in rural areas to be trained in masonry by 2022
- Programme for human resources development in Panchayati Raj Institutions to be launched
Social welfare
17 per cent increase in budget over last year
- Rs 500 crore allocated to set up Mahila Shakti Kendra in Anganwadi Centres for women empowerment
- Rs 6,000 each to be transferred to the bank accounts of pregnant women who undergo institutional delivery, under the Maternity Benefit Scheme
- Rs 31,920 crore allocated to Scheduled Tribes and Rs 4,195 crore for minority affairs
Health
22.6 per cent increase in budget over last year
- Eliminate Kala-Azar and Filariasis by 2017, Leprosy by 2018, Measles by 2020 and Tuberculosis by 2025
- Reduce Infant Mortality Rate from 39 per 1,000 births in 2014 to 28 per 1,000 births by 2019
- Reduce Maternal Mortality Rate from 167 per 1,000 births in 2011-13 to 100 per 1,000 births by 2020
- 5,000 new Post Graduate seats per annum to ensure adequate availability of specialist doctors
- 2 new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences in Jharkhand and Gujarat
- Amend Drugs and Cosmetics Rules to ensure availability of drugs at reasonable prices and promote use of generic medicines
Transport
20.2 per cent increase in budget over last year
- Rs 131,000 crore is the total budget of the Railways
- Rs 1 lakh crore budgeted to create Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh for passenger safety
- Unmanned level crossings on Broad Gauge lines will be eliminated by 2020
- 3,500 km railway lines to be commissioned in 2017-18
- 7,000 railway stations to have solar power
- SMS-based Clean My Coach Service has been started
- Coach Mitra, a single window interface, to register all coach related complaints and requirements to be launched
- All coaches of Indian Railways to have with bio toilets by 2019
- New Metro Rail Policy and Act to be announced
- Rs 64,900 crore allocated for highways
- 2,000 km of coastal connectivity roads have been identified for construction and development
- 150,000 gram panchayats to have high-speed broadband connectivity on optical fibre by 2017-18, under BharatNet initiative
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