Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that India will become the third largest economy in the world during his third term as the leader of the country. The PM was speaking at the inaugural session of Journey Towards Viksit Bharat: A Post Union Budget 2024-25 Conference at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
“When in 2014, the NDA was voted to power, the biggest question was around how we could bring the Indian economy back on track. Prior to 2014, India was part of Fragile 5. We are all aware of the scams ranging crores in India,” he said.
Commenting on the Budget 2024, he said, “In 2013-14, during the Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government’s last budget, it was of Rs 16 lakh crore. Today, our Budget has increased three times more and hit Rs 48 lakh crore.”
PM Modi said that the capex during the NDA government has increased over Rs 11 lakh crore – five times more as compared to 2004 when PM Vajpayee’s government was voted out of power and the first Budget of UPA-I put capex at Rs 90,000 crore.
“Even if you look at different sectors, you will understand that India is focused on the economy of each sector. Compared to the UPA government’s decade in power, our government increased railways budget by 8 times, agriculture budget by 4 times, and defence budget spiked two-fold,” he said.
Here are the key highlights from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech:
- Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s fiscal prudence is a role model for world. India’s share in global growth is now 16%. This growth has been achieved by India when in the previous 10 years, India was struck by many economic issues like Covid, war, natural disasters like cyclone, and drought.
- India is enjoying low inflation and high growth, unlike the rest of the world who are suffering from high inflation and low growth. Our focus has become to improve ease of living and quality of life.
- MUDRA scheme has helped more than 8 crore people in the country to start their businesses.
- The PM package of Rs 2 lakh crore for youth introduced in this Budget is holistic and comprehensive, and is an end-to-end solution to increase the India’s manpower and product quality and value to make it globally competitive.
- To upskill India’s youth and give them exposure, the government has brought an internship scheme to boost employment for the youth.
- PLI schemes have been in launched for 14 sectors – the manufacturing sector has been boosted by the NDA government.
- Through this Budget, around 100 big cities will be investment-ready, plug and play industrial parks.
- This government has focused on MSMEs since 2014, as well as this Budget which has launched new credit guarantee schemes. MSMEs will get the required capital and credit limit.
- In the Budget 2024, the allocation for nuclear power generation has been increased.
- Space economy has also been allotted Rs 1000 crore through venture capital.
- Whichever country becomes a part of the semiconductor industry, it will see a bright future – which is why we have carved out a place for India in this sector.
- We have created a road map for green job sector. PM Surya Ghar Yojana is a revolution. We have spoken about clean energy in this Budget including energy security and transition which is very important for the economy.
- The private sector and industry will play an important role in its Viksit journey. Wealth creators of the country will also be the driving force in a developed India.
The press conference, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), was aimed at presenting an outline for the government’s larger vision for growth and industry’s role in this endeavour, notified the PMO on Monday.Over 1,000 participants, which include participants from the industry, government, diplomatic community, and think tanks among others, will be attending the conference in person while many are expected to connect from the various CII centres across the country and overseas.
The Union Budget 2024 was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 22 for a record seventh time. It emphasised support for the underprivileged, women, youth, and farmers through increased spending, job creation, and middle-class tax relief.
Key tax changes included a higher Securities Transaction Tax (STT), lower capital gains taxes, and the removal of the angel tax. The budget also revised income tax slabs, increased Mudra loan limits, and allocated a record amount for railway funding.
On the other hand, the opposition INDIA bloc leaders staged a protest against the new Union budget in the Parliament premises on July 24 during the Monsoon Session. The opposition parties have alleged the Union Budget 2024 to be a “discriminatory budget” and is biased against states not ruled by the members of the ruling NDA government.
