The Maldives, which was in hot water over boycott calls, has seen a hike in budgetary allocation for the Maldives from ₹400 crores in 2023-24 to ₹770.90 crores in the current fiscal.
| Photo Credit: AFP

India’s neighbourhood received a substantial share of the annual allocation under the Ministry of External Affairs for the 2024-25 interim budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday. Out of all the countries in the neighbourhood, Bhutan has received ₹2,398.97 crores as allocation for the current fiscal year while Nepal has come second with ₹650 crores for various development projects currently underway in the Himalayan country. For 2024-25, Nepal has received an allocation of ₹700 crores.

The Maldives which has been in news recently because of anti-India protests as well as remarks from its top leadership has seen a substantial bump in allocation. The allocation for the Maldives for 2023-24 was ₹400 crores which went up to ₹770.90 crores this time. This indicates that India is increasing investments in the archipelago nation. 

Indian projects in Bangladesh under current fiscal will receive ₹130 crores and ₹220 crores have been allocated for Afghanistan which is governed by the Taliban that is yet to find official recognition from India. Sri Lanka will receive ₹60 crores of the allocation for the current fiscal. Conflict struck Myanmar has received ₹370 crores in the current fiscal.

Explained | How is the interim Budget different from Annual Budget?

Among the island nations of the Indian Ocean, Seychelles, and Mauritius have received ₹9.91 crores and ₹370 crores respectively in the current fiscal. The port of Chabahar in Iran will receive an ₹100 crores as funding. ₹3,849 crores have been allocated for Lines of Credit under the Indian Development and Economic Assistance Scheme. Reflecting India’s growing engagement with African nations, the budget has allocated ₹200 crores for the African development projects; the figure is as per revised estimate for current fiscal.

Projects with Eurasian countries and Latin American countries have been allocated ₹20 crores and ₹30 crores respectively. Cultural and heritage projects have been allocated ₹10 crores in the current fiscal. The expenditure will increase during 2024 to 2025 and may touch ₹15 crores. 

The Centre has allocated ₹1.68 lakh crore to NHAI in the interim Budget. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

After a massive jump in allocation every consecutive year in the recent past, this year’s budgetary allocation for the road sector saw a measly 2.7% increase.

The Interim Budget set aside ₹2,78,000 crore for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways as compared to the ₹2,70,434 crore in the budget estimate for this fiscal. When compared to the revised estimate of ₹2,76,351 crore, the allocation is a hike of a mere 0.5%.

Of the total budgetary grant, ₹1,68,464 is for investment in NHAI for the development of national highway corridors under Bharat Mala Pariyojana. As of November 2023, a total of 15,045 km of the total project of 26,418 km have been completed and an amount of ₹4.10 lakh crore has been spent under Bharat Mala Pariyojana up to October 2023.

Also read: Interim Budget 2024-2025 documents presented by FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Separately, a sum of ₹78,349 crore has been set aside for road works, which includes six landing of crowded sections of the Golden Quadrilateral, road development in Naxal-hit areas and provisioning of last-mile connectivity through State government’s Public Works Department.

Last year, the budget announcement saw a hike of 35%, and the year before that there was a 70% hike in the grant for roads.

India’s Finance Minister announced a new scheme to develop deep tech for defence purposes while presenting the Interim Budget for 2024-25.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

For tech-savvy youth, a corpus of ₹1 lakh crore will be established with 50-year interest free loans for providing long term financing or refinancing with long tenures and low or nil interest rates, announced Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Interim Budget for 2024-25.

“This will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in the sunrise domains,” she added.

The Finance Minister also said that a new scheme will be launched to develop deep tech for defence purposes.

On electric vehicles, she informed Parliament that government will expand and strengthen the sector through greater manufacturing and charging infrastructure.

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The government has allocated ₹1,500 crore for setting up semiconductor fabs in India under the Modified Scheme, she said.

Counting the achievements of Union Government, the FM said that the Skill India Mission has trained 1.4 crore youth, upskilled and reskilled 54 lakh youth. She added that 3,000 new Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) were opened.

Nirmala Sitharaman informed that in the last ten years 7 Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), 16 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT), 7 Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), 15 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and 390 Universities have been set up in the country.

She briefed that ₹34 lakh crore worth of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) has been achieved in the last decade, and it saved ₹2.7 lakh crore of government as a result.

More than 1360 Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (mandis) have been digitised, doing a business of 3 lakh crore, she told.

FM informed the house that Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has been instrumental in formalisation of the economy.

“Technological advancements are transforming lives and businesses, creating new economic opportunities,” she said.