From developing smart cities to Ganga cleaning NDA govt's maiden budget took a step forward on several of the Prime Minister's key schemes

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi-led NDA government's maiden budget took a step forward on several of the Prime Minister's key schemes. Modi has through the past few months consistently emphasised on the need to develop infrastructure, skill youth, create better and cleaner cities, as a part of his vision for India.

We take a look at twelve such initiatives that found a major push in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's budget:

1) 100 Smart Cities: Giving direction to Modi's vision of building multiple smart cities in India, Jaitley said the government will aim to spend Rs 7060 crore for 100 smart cities.

Jaitley said, "The Prime Minister has a vision of developing one hundred 'Smart cities' as satellite towns of larger cities and by modernising the existing mid-sized cities."

"With development reaching an increasingly large number of people, the pace of migration from the rural areas to the cities is increasing. The new cities should be developed to accommodate the burgeoning number of people. Otherwise, the existing cities would soon become unlivable," he said.

2) Skill India Programme: Looking to harness the demographic dividend, Jaitley said that government will work on skill development of youth. The government announced the launch of a national Multi-Skill programme called Skill India.

"This programme would skill the youth with an emphasis on employability and entrepreneur skills," Jaitley said. "It will also provide training and support for traditional professions like welders, carpenters, cobblers, masons, blacksmiths and weavers etc," he elaborated. "Convergence of various schemes to attain this objective is also proposed," he added.

3) Housing for all by 2022: Stating that the government is committed to endeavour to have housing for all by 2022, Jaitley said, "We will extend additional tax incentive on home loans to encourage people, especially the young, to own houses."

The government has hiked the housing interest rate deduction limit to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 1.5 lakh on personal home loans. It has proposed to set up a Mission on Low Cost Affordable Housing to be anchored in the National Housing Bank. Jaitley said that a sum of Rs 4,000 crore has been earmarked for National Housing Bank with a view to increase the flow of cheaper credit for affordable housing to the urban poor/EWS/LIG segment.

4) Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan: Moving towards NDA government's 'Swachh Bharat Abhiya', Jaitley said, "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the need for sanitation is of utmost importance."

"Although the central government is providing resources within its mean, the task of total sanitation cannot be achieved without the support of all," Jaitley said. "The government intends to cover every household by total sanitation by the year 2019," Jaitley said.

"We want to celebrate the 150th year of the birth anniversary of Mahatama Gandhi through the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan," Jaitley said.

5) Ganga cleaning: With focus on river linking study, Jaitley said, "We will allot Rs 100 crore to fund the river linking study."

"The government also proposes to allocate Rs 2037 crore to clean up Ganga," he said. Jaitley also said that the government will set up an NRI fund to boost Ganga's clean up.

"The Mission is being launched because a substantial amount of money has been spent in the conservation and improvement of the river Ganga but the efforts have not yielded desired results because of the lack of concerted effort by all the stakeholders," he said.

The Finance Minister has also set aside a sum of Rs. 100 crore for Ghat development and beautification of river front at Kedarnath, Haridwar, Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Patna and Delhi in the current financial year since Riverfronts and Ghats are not only places of rich historical heritage but many of these are also sacred.

6) Solar & renewable energy: Jaitley announced several initiatives for strengthening energy sector. Jaitley proposed to take up Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Laddakh in J&K. A sum of Rs 500 crore is allocated for this purpose.

He also allocated a sum of Rs 400 crore for launching a scheme for Solar Power driven agricultural pump sets and water pumping stations. An additional amount of Rs 100 core is set aside for the development of 1 MW Solar Parks on the banks of canals.

Implementation of Green Energy Corridor Projects will be accelerated in this financial year to facilitate evacuation of renewable energy across the country.

7) Promoting tourism: The budget proposes to create 5 tourist circuits around specific themes for which a sum of Rs 500 crore has been set aside in the current financial year. Jaitley said that India's rich cultural, historical, religious and natural heritage provides a huge potential for the development of tourism and job creation as an industry. Sarnath-Gaya-Varanasi Buddhist circuit would also be developed with world class tourist amenities to attract tourists from all over the world, he added.

The Finance Minister also announced the launching of National Heritage city Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) for conserving and preserving the heritage characters of these cities. The programme will be launched in the cities such as Mathura, Amritsar, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Vellankani, and Ajmer with a provision of Rs 200 crore in the current Budget. The project will work through a partnership of Government, Academic Institutions and local community combining affordable technologies.

A National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) with an outlay of Rs 100 crore is also proposed to be launched in this financial year. The Finance Minister has set aside a sum of Rs 100 crore for the preservation of archaeological sites. Highlighting the importance of Goa emerging as a major international convention centre, the Finance Minister said that there is a need to develop world class convention facilities in the state. Government of India will fully support this initiative to develop the facilities in PPP mode through the VGF scheme, the Minister added.

The facility of Electronic Travel Authorisation (e-Visa) shall be introduced in a phased manner at nine airports in India. Jaitley said that the necessary infrastructure would be put in place within the next six months. Jaitley said that tourism is one of the largest job creators globally. The facility of e-Visa would give a major boost to tourism in India. The countries to which e-Visa facility would be extended would be identified in a phased manner. This would further facilitate the Visa-on-Arrival facility.

8) Developing North-East: Development of the North-Eastern part of the country found special focus in the budget. "In the current financial year, an allocation of Rs 53,706 crore has been made for North Eastern Region," Jaitley said.

Jaitley announced an amount of Rs 37,880 crore for National Highways Authority of India and State Roads, out of which Rs 3,000 crore will be spent in the North East.

"Rs 100 crore is being provided for development of organic farming in North Eastern States in the current financial year. With a growing global demand for organic food, North Eastern States will benefit from development of commercial organic farming," Jaitley said.

Jaitley proposed a sum of Rs 1000 crore for development of rail connectivity in the North Eastern Region over and above the amount provided for in the interim budget.

Jaitley said, in order to provide a strong platform to rich cultural and linguistic identity of the North-East, a new 24x7 channel called "ArunPrabha" will be launched for the expression of cultural identity and for creating greater awareness of the richness of the diversity of our country.

9) Focus on 'Rurban': With a focus on building rural infrastructure, Jaitley said, "The Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission will be launched to deliver integrated project based infrastructure in the rural areas."

Jaitley said that this will also include development of economic activities and skill development. "The preferred mode of delivery would be through PPPs while using various scheme funds," he said.

Jaitley cited the example of Gujarat that has demonstrated successfully the Rurban development model of urbanization of the rural areas, through which people living in the rural areas can get efficient civic infrastructure and associate services.

10) Soil-Health Card: Deteriorating soil health has been a cause of concern and leads to sub optimal utilization of farming resources. Jaitley said that the government will initiate a scheme to provide to every farmer a soil health card in a mission mode. The Finance Minister proposed to set aside a sum of Rs 100 core for this purpose.

An additional Rs 56 crore has been allocated to set up 100 mobile soil testing laboratories across the county. There have also been growing concerns about the imbalance in the utilization of different types of fertilizers resulting in deterioration of the soil.

11) Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana: The government has introduced a new scheme called Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, which will help in generating awareness and improving the efficiency of delivery of welfare services meant for women with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore.

Jaitley said that government would focus on campaigns to sensitize people of this country towards the concerns of the girl child and women. He said that the process of sensitization must begin early and therefore the school curriculum must have a separate chapter on gender mainstreaming.

Sharing the concerns of the members on women's safety, the Finance Minister said that Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will spend Rs 50 crore on pilot testing a scheme for Safety of Women on Public Road Transport. Similarly, Ministry of Home Affairs will spend Rs 150 crore on a scheme to increase the safety of women in large cities.

12) Statue of Unity: An amount of Rs 200 crore has been allocated for the erection of Statue of Unity in Gujarat. Jaitley said, "The government of Gujarat has embarked upon the mission to build the largest statue of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. Sardar Patel stands as a symbol of unity of the country."