India's Interim Budget 2019

Interim Budget has been presented before the Loksabha. Amid beginning-to-end bench thumping, chest widening & self-praising with the usage of superlative adjectives like most, greatest, largest, biggest, highest; facts concealing and misrepresentation which is not uncommon as every government does that one need to listen between the lines and that’s what we do and pick the thing useful for us. 

One of it is there will not be any tax for income up to 5 lakh plus 1.5 lakh of investments. This has covered a large section of middle-class hardworking employees in the organized sector and will bring some relief to their actual salary received in hand. Spending and savings both will take a turn with that and hence growth opportunities is foreseeable.

There is something for the unorganized sector comprising of 42 crore people who can go for the newly launched pension scheme (Pradhan Mantri Shram yogi Mandhan) where they have to contribute a meager Rs.50 per month from age 18 & Rs. 100 per month from age 29 and government will equally contribute to this amount. This is promising for a number of reasons - most important being the coverage of social security at old age. India is the most youthful country in the world today and no doubt that this population is going to get old and then there will be a huge burden in the developing economy such as India to take care of their needs. Besides the fact that only recently due to the major drive in opening up the bank accounts many of them are formalized & could open a zero balance account. This will also help in increasing the savings at the bank & thus the cycle of investment. To this, there is huge responsibility laying with the government & other public-private NGOs to aware these people regarding the scheme & actually make it possible. We are also a country where a large section of the old age population is engaged in daily wage works. They are largely deprived of health benefits because of the simple reason that they don't have money. Many thus die a painful death. A quality life is the right of every individual. Ayushman Bharat has been on the ground & is playing a good role for the secondary health care. Something at the prevention level like Sanitation awareness similar to Swachh Bharat is needed & enforced by heart. Surveys conducted by some organization shows that majority of the toilets built by the government are now unused for various reasons.

India is an emerging Blue (fishing) economy and nearly 2 crores of the population are directly/indirectly involved with the sector for their livelihood. Government is going to open a new department for them which is a good initiative again. However, a case in point is December's decision to deregulating the CRZ for development. How are the two in sync is hard to comprehend... After that Rs. 6000 is proposed to be given annually to the farmers in three installments. This will be directly transferred to their accounts (Direct Benefit Transfer) with no third party involved. This is going to help them financially & as well in subduing the stresses for fund availability for procuring seed, fertilizers, etc.

As per the latest ASER report which surveyed students at various class and again rang the bell with the appalling state of students in schools. Students are the future of tomorrow’s India. They will have to compete with the world when they grow up. This mandates proper care for them in full swing. They are the most important asset & investment sponge for future India. There is an increased focus on the defense sector with more than 3 lakh crore to be invested there. It was surprising to listen to nothing about the education sector in the speech, although recently the stipend rates have been increased for the country’s 65000 research scholars in various institutes. That too came after the countrywide protest. We need more R&D facilities, more labs, more playgrounds, more quality schools and so on. This is the first step in moving from sustenance to surplus, from dependent to self-empowerment. Let education prevail!

Overall there are good opportunities in the budget but this has also come with the equal opportunity for a part playing. Benefits must reach for the one it is meant for. This is going to be the biggest challenge for one of the most corrupt countries of ours. No chest thumping but yes high prospects! 


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