Budget 2022-23 Carves Out Vital Global Role For India: Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said Budget 2022-23 carves out a vital global role for India and “seeks to usher India @75 into India @100”. Addressing an academic interaction on the budget here organised by the BJP and attended by noted economists, intellectuals, prominent leaders of trade and business communities as well as other stakeholders, Singh said he has had the opportunity of being present at all the 10 budgets presented by the Modi government, including the Vote on Account presented by Arun Jaitley soon after this government came in 2014.

The minister said he can say with confidence that there has been a consistency in approach coupled with conviction and courage, and these three "Cs" have been common underlying determinants in every budget, whereas each successive budget has carried India forward closer to assume a global role, a statement issued by the Union Personnel Ministry said. Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, said in the Nehruvian years soon after the Independence, India was a closed economy. In the 1990s, it began to open but Prime Minister Modi has turned it into a dynamic, responsive, forward looking economy and particularly after Covid, the whole world has accepted this fact and is looking up to India.

The world today is ready to be led by us, he said, adding, "But the question is, are we ready to lead the world?" “And, budget 2022 addresses this issue by seeking a leap forward for India through technology and innovation-based economy which enriches itself by exploring India's unexplored potentials including the deep sea resources,” Singh said.

The minister said, "Budget 2022 carves out a vital global role for India and seeks to usher India @75 into India @100." Prime Minister Modi has given us a statesmanly budget which addresses the next generation and not the next election, he said. "The future economy is going to be the economy of ideas and the economy of imaginative innovation," said Singh, adding that the budget reflects the futuristic vision of the government headed by Narendra Modi visible in every initiative, whether it be 'Drone Shakti' for start-ups, 'Kisan drone', 30 per cent tax on virtual transfers, low carbon strategy etc. "To those who say there are no jobs accruing from the budget," he said, "they are prisoners of government salary job."

Giving some examples, Singh said the increase in capital expenditure to Rs 7.2 lakh crore and construction of 45,000 km highways worth over Rs 1,30,000 crore will generate jobs. The minister said the budget lays stress on chemical-free farming, sustainable start-ups, drone technology and various tech-based developments. He said the budget includes provisions for using drone technology in sectors like agriculture and start-ups in form of ‘Kisan drones’ , ‘drone shakti’ and drone-as-a-service (DrAAS). All these offer abundant opportunities for job generation across sectors, the statement said.

Singh further maintained that sustainable start-ups were a major focus area of the Union Budget as it provides better opportunities than government jobs. He added that the government endeavoured to build an economy of ideas, innovation and futuristic thinking wherein there is an abundance of job opportunities. J-K BJP chief Ravinder Raina made the concluding remarks and professor Dipanker Sen from Jammu University gave his expert comments on the budget.

With PTI Inputs