A corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore will be established with 50-year interest free loans to encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation in sunrise domains, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday. Presenting the interim Budget 2024, Sitharaman said this will be a golden era for India’s tech savvy youth.
“For our tech savvy youth, this will be a golden era. A corpus of rupees one lakh crore will be established with fifty-year interest free loan. The corpus will provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or nil interest rates. This will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains,” finance minister Sitharaman said.
“We need to have programmes that combine the powers of our youth and technology,” she added.
A new scheme will be launched for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes and expediting ‘atmanirbharta’, the finance minister said in her Budget 2024 speech.
Also read: Interim Budget 2024: Here are 10 key announcements for common man
Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the Interim Budget, hailing it as “inclusive and innovative.” In his initial post-budget comments, PM Modi highlighted the empowerment of the four pillars of Viksit Bharat – youth, the poor, women, and farmers. He emphasized the budget’s confidence in continuity and its commitment to transforming India into a developed nation by 2047.
PM Modi also remarked on the budget’s reflection of the aspirations of a young India, underscoring two significant decisions within it – the allocation of a Rs 1 lakh crore fund for research and innovation and a focus on empowering the poor and middle class while creating new employment opportunities.
