A Visionary Budget with Big Boost on Infra, Energy Transition & Job Creation

Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman in her first budget of third term of Prime Minister Modi presented a robust roadmap for infrastructure development, employment generation, energy transition with an overarching mission to make Bharat developed nation by 2047. Amongst the key priorities as spelled out by Hon’ble Finance Minister include – productivity and resilience in agriculture, energy security, employment & skilling and next generation reforms, amongst several others.  

The budget of 2024-25 builds upon the achievement of past ten years of Prime Minister Modi led NDA government and proposes to implement some visionary initiatives such as Critical Mineral Mission, Employment-Linked Incentive Scheme, incentivizing States to implement Business Reforms Action Plans etc. One of the big highlights of this year’s budget is proposal to set up a Critical Mineral Mission for domestic production, recycling of critical minerals, and overseas acquisition of critical mineral assets. Its mandate will include technology development, skilled workforce, extended producer responsibility framework, and a suitable financing mechanism. Secured access to critical minerals holds key to our long-term goal of “net-zero” through energy transition.

While developing domestic production capacity of critical minerals would take time, in the meanwhile the budget proposes to fully exempt customs duties on 25 critical minerals and reduce Basic Customs Duty on two of them. This will provide a major boost to the processing and refining of such minerals and help secure their availability for strategic and important sectors such as renewable energy, defense, high-tech electronics, space etc. 

Government of India has a big thrust on solar energy. We have seen a visible impact of solar power in the Indian energy scenario during the last few years. Solar power has benefited millions of people in Indian villages and small towns by meeting their cooking, lighting, and other energy needs in an environment friendly manner. The budget provides further impetus to this sector by expanding the list of exempted capital goods for use in the manufacture of solar cells and panels in the country.

The budget proposes some unique ideas to create new employment opportunities. The employment-linked incentive scheme to support both employees and employers, launching a comprehensive scheme for providing internship opportunities in 500 top companies to 1 crore youth in 5 years, would not only help in creating more gainful employment but impart necessary technical skills to large number of youths.

While Finance Minister has announced special projects for few states but one of the major messages to all states is that they would be incentivized for implementation of their Business Reforms Action Plans and digitalization. Successful implementation of this would enable greater investment in states both by MNCs and domestic industry.   

In a nutshell, the Finance Minister did a credible job of balancing the long-term priorities of “net-zero” goal with short and medium terms target of infrastructure development and growth of manufacturing and services. Besides, she gave adequate focus on social development by focusing on agriculture, MSME and employment generation. 

#India #FinanceMinister #NirmalaSitharaman #Budget2024 #Infrastructure #Employment #EnergyTransition #DevelopedIndia2047 #Agriculture #Productivity #EnergySecurity #SkillingIndia #NextGenReforms #CriticalMineralMission #EmploymentIncentives #BusinessReforms #SolarEnergy #RenewableEnergy #NetZero #TechSkills #YouthEmployment #DigitalIndia #InvestmentOpportunities #MSME #Growth #SocialDevelopment #IndiaGrowthStory

You may also like...