Image Source : PTI Nirmala Sitharaman
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday presented her eighth consecutive budget as she delivered a speech that lasted for 75 minutes on February 1. The speech is one of the shortest from her, given that she holds the record for delivering the longest budget speech of two hours and forty minutes in 2020. In what appears to be a tribute to Madhubani art, she was wearing an off-white coloured handloom silk saree, which had fish-themed embroidery along with a golden border.
The Finance Minister made some crucial announcements in her budget speech, including rationalisation of the TDS (Tax Deduction at Source) regime to ease compliance burden, creating additional infrastructure in five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and expanding IIT Patna, and hiking the income tax exemption limit to Rs 12 lakh per annum under the New Tax Regime.
Sitharaman also announced a Nuclear Energy Mission aimed at promoting research and development of small modular reactors, with an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore. She also announced 10,000 fellowships for tech research at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Science (IISC) in the next five years.
Another major announcement is the launch of a modified UDAN scheme to connect 120 destinations to help 4 crore additional passengers in the next 10 years.
Sitharaman started her budget speech with agriculture, as the Finance Minister announced PM Dhan Dhyan Krishi Yojana, covering 100 districts with low yields, modern crop intensity and below-average credit parameters.
She added the government will launch a rural prosperity and resilience programme focusing on youth, women, and farmers. Nafed (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India) and NCCF will procure pulses in the next four years. The government will also roll out a 6-year programme for Atmanirbharta in pulses with a special focus on tur, urad, and masoor.
(With inputs from PTI)
