February 1, 2017 is the day when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is to present the Union Budget for the financial year 2017-2018. Last night, a Lok Sabha Member and former Union Minister, E Ahamed passed away and the there were speculations about the budget announcement being postponed by a day. However, the ministers are all ready for the meeting where the budget will be disclosed.
This PaGaLGuY correspondent is going to give you timely updates of the Budget 2017.
9:10 am
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reached the Parliament
9:40 am
Copies of the Union Budget 2017-2018 reach the parliament
9:47 am
The Cabinet Meeting is scheduled for 10:15 am
Budget presentation will commence at 11 am
10:03 am
Minister of Urban Development of India- Venkaiah Naidu, Rajnath Singh- Home Minister, Ananth Kumar- Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Jitendra Singh- Science and Technology Minister of India are all the residence of Lok Sabha Member E Ahamed who passed away last night
10:04 am
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the residence of Late E Ahamed
10:05 am
Lok Sabha Speaker, Sumitra Mahajan heads to Parliament
10:13 am
Minister of Textiles- Smriti Irani reaches Parliament
10:23 am
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at the Parliament
10:25 am
Cabinet Meeting begins in Parliament
10:44 am
After paying tribute to Late E Ahamed at his Delhi residence, Lok Sabha Speaker confirms Budget will take place
10:55 am
Cabinet Meeting concludes, Cabinet approves Budget 2017-18
11:00 am
Budget meeting commences
11:01 am
Speaker of Lok Sabha- Sumitra Mahajan announces a minute of silence in honor of the late Lok Sabha Member E Ahmad
11:05 am
Speaker of Lok Sabha announces that the house will not be adjourned on February 1, 2017 as a Constitutional obligation as thePresident of India called for the meeting to present the Budget 2017-2018.
However, the House of People will be adjourned on February 2, 2017 in honor of the late member of Lok Sabha, E Ahamed
11:10 am
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley commences addressing the Lok Sabha
11:13 am
Arun Jaitley says, “Our focus will be on energizing the youth to reap the benefits of growth and employment”
11:20 am
Jaitley quotes Mahatma Gandhi with demonetization in context – ‘A right cause never fails’
11:21 am
The main goal of the Budget 2017 is to spend more on infrastructure, the poor and take forward economic reforms
11:24 am
Three main reforms include
- The early presentation of the Budget to 1st February before the current financial year ends
- The merging or the Rail Budget with the Union Budget discountinuing the colonial methods
- Getting rid of Plan and Non Plan method for Optimal Allocation of Resources
11:25 am
TEC-India – Transform, Energize, and Clean India
To transform the quality of governance life of people
To energise the youth and the vulnerable
To clean the country from the evils of corruption, black money and the non transparent political funding
11:26 am
10 themes for the budget
- Farmers for whom we have committed to double their incomes in 5 years
- Rural population- providing infrastructure and employment
- Youth- energizing them through education, skills and jobs
- Poor and the underprivileged- Strengthening social security, healthcare and affordable housing
- Infrastructure for efficiency, productivity and quality of life
- Financial Sector- Growth and stability through stronger institutions
- Digital Economy for speedy accountability and transparency
- Public Service- Effective governance and efficiency through people’s participation
- Prudent Fiscal management to ensure optimal deployment of resources and preserve financial stability
- Tax administration- Honoring the Honest
11:35 am
Better funding for farmers at grass-root level. A total of Rs 1,87,223 crore allotted for agricultural reforms/programmes
11:40 am
A total of 48,000 crores will be allocated to guarantee hundred days of wage-employment in a year to a rural household under MGNREGA
11:43 am
1 crore houses to be built for the homeless by 2019
11:44 am
Total allocation for the rural agricultural and allied sectors for 2017-18 is a whopping 1,87, 223 crores and is 24% higher than 2016-17
11:48 am
Education Sector
- Proposal of a system to measure annual learning outcomes in schools
- Emphasis on science education and flexibility of curriculum to promote creativity through local innovative content
- Innovation fund of secondary education to encourage local innovation to ensure universal access, gender parity and quality improvement
- Focus is 3,479 educationally backward blocks
- Undertake reforms in the UGC
- Colleges will be identified on the basis of accreditation and ranking, and will be given autonomous status
- Information Technology – Swayam programme to have 350 online courses that will help students get better study material, participate in discussion forums
- Swayam will be accessible with the help of DTH channels
- Proposal for the National Testing Organisation that will conduct all entrance examinations for higher education so that CBSE and AICTE are free of administrative responsibilities
- Bigger plans for Skill India that was launched in 2015
- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra has already been promoted in more than 60 districts and will be spread to more than 600 districts across the country
- 100 India-International Skill Centres will be established across the country for advanced training and courses in foreign languages
- Providing help to students seeking jobs outside India
- Skill acquisition programme called ‘Sankalp’ will have a budget of Rs 4,ooo crores, it will provide market relevant training to 3.5 crore youth
- Skill strengthening for industrial value enhancement will be launched in 2017-2018 for Rs 2,200 crores
12:01 pm
Special scheme for increasing employment in the textile sector has already been launched, similar schemes will be started for leather and footwear sector
12:02 pm
Tourism is a big employer. Five special tourism zones will be setup in partnership with states and ‘Incredible India’ to improve the tourism sector
12:03 pm
The poor and the unprivileged
- Mahila Shakti Kendras will be set up in villages with an allocation of Rs 500 crores
- Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and the Aanganwadi Centres will provide a support system for rural women with opportunities for skill development and digital literacy
- Financial assistance for pregnany women of Rs 6,000 will be directly transfered to the account of women who go through institutional delivery and vaccinate children
12:05 pm
Welfare of Women and Children
- 1,56,528 crore were allocated for this sector in the previous year and for the financial year 2017-2018, the allocation has been increased to 1,80,632 crore
- Higher investment in affordable housing along with infrastructural aid
- The National Housing Bank will refinance housing loans of Rs 20,000 crore this year
- Demonetization has helped with reducing lending rates for banks considering the liquidity of money
12:09 am
Health
- Government will work on the elimination of kala azar and filariasis by 2017, leprosy by 2018, measles by 2020, and tuberculosis by 2025
- Decreasing the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) from 39 in 2014 to 28 in 2019
- Decreasing Measles, Mumps and Rubella from 167 in 2011-2013 to 100 by 2018-2020
- Health Sub Centres will be transformed in to Health Wellness Centres
- Increase the number of postgraduate seats in medical colleges by 5,000 per annum for improving secondary and tertiary health issues in India
- To work on Diplomat of National Board (DNB) courses
- Increase placements in Employees’ State Insurance Hospitals and Municipal hospitals and encourage reputed private hospitals to introduce the DNB courses
- Measures are to be taken to improve the structure of medical education in India
- All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will be set up in the states of Jharkhand and Gujarat
- Amendment of the drug and cosmetic rules to ensure higher availability of drugs at reasonable prices
- New rules regarding medical devices will be formulated to match international standards in order to attract investments in the sector and reduce the cost of such devices
12:20 pm
Labour
- Conducive labour environment to be targeted in order to protect the rights of labourers
- To rationalize and amalgamate labour laws
- Amendment to the wages act will help labours and businessmen
- Government is working on implementation of schemes for the benefit of the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities
- Allocation for the scheduled castes has been upped from Rs 38,833 crores in 2016-2017 to Rs 52,393 crores in 2017-2018
- Allocation for scheduled tribes has been increased to Rs 31,970 crores
- Allocation for minorities has been increased to Rs 4,190 crores
- Outcome-based processes to be put in place with the help of the NITI Aayog
12:31 pm
For senior citizens, Aadhaar-based smartcards with their health details will be introduced.
LIC will provide an assured pension with a guaranteed return of eight per cent per annum for 10 years