Government budgeting is important for competitive exams and is favorite area for upsc prelims and mains. You can refer this crux for competitive exams like UPSC civil service ,state PSC, bank test and similar.

News

• Presenting the first ever digital Union Budget, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs stated that India’s fight against COVID-19 continues into 2021 and that this moment in history, when the political, economic, and strategic relations in the post-COVID world are changing, is the dawn of a new era – one in which India is well-poised to truly be the land of promise and hope.

Key Highlights of Union Budget 2021-22

6 pillars of the Union Budget 2021-22:

1. Health and Wellbeing
2. Physical & Financial Capital, and Infrastructure
3. Inclusive Development for Aspirational India
4. Reinvigorating Human Capital
5. Innovation and R&D
6. Minimum Government and Maximum Governance

1. Health and Wellbeing

• 2,23,846 crore outlay for Health and Wellbeing in BE 2021-22 as against Rs. 94,452 crore in BE 2020-21 – an increase of 137%
• Focus on strengthening three areas: Preventive, Curative,and Wellbeing
• Steps being taken for improving health and wellbeing:
• 35,000 crorefor COVID-19 vaccine in BE 2021-22
• The Made-in-IndiaPneumococcal Vaccine to be rolled out across the country, from present 5 states – to avert 50,000 child deaths annually 
• 64,180 croreoutlay over 6 years for PM AatmaNirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana – a new centrally sponsored scheme to be launched, in addition to NHM
• Main interventions under PM AatmaNirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana:

Mission Poshan 2.0 to be launched

• To strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach, and outcome
• Merging the Supplementary Nutrition Programme and the Poshan Abhiyan
• Intensified strategy to be adopted to improve nutritional outcomes across 112 Aspirational Districts

Universal Coverage of Water Supply 

• 2,87,000 crore over 5 years for Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban)– to be launched with an aim to provide:
• 86 crore household tap connections
• Universal water supply in all 4,378 Urban Local Bodies
• Liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities

Swachch Bharat, Swasth Bharat 

• 1,41,678crore over 5 years for Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0
• Main interventions under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0:
• Complete faecal sludge managementand waste water treatment
• Source segregationof garbage
• Reduction in single-use plastic
• Reduction in air pollutionby effectively managing waste from construction-and-demolition activities
• Bio-remediation of all legacy dump sites

Clean Air 

• 2,217 crore to tackle air pollution, for 42 urban centers with a million-plus population 

2. Physical and Financial Capital and Infrastructure

 Production Linked Incentive scheme (PLI) 

• 1.97 lakh crore in next 5 years for PLI schemes in 13 Sectors
• To create and nurture manufacturing global champions for an AatmaNirbhar Bharat
• To help manufacturing companies become an integral part of global supply chains, possess core competence and cutting-edge technology
• To bring scale and sizein key sectors
• To provide jobsto the youth

Infrastructure 

• National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) expanded to 7,400 projects:
• Around 217 projects worth Rs. 1.10 lakh crore completed
• Measures in three thrust areas to increase funding for NIP:
• Creation of  institutional structures
• Big thrust on monetizing assets
• Enhancing the share of capital expenditure

Big thrust on monetizing assets

• National Monetization Pipeline to be launched

Sharp Increase in Capital Budget

• 5.54 lakh crorecapital expenditure in BE 2021-22 – sharp increase of 34.5% over Rs. 4.12 lakh crore allocated in BE 2020-21 :
• Over  2 lakh croreto States and Autonomous Bodies for their Capital Expenditure.
• Over  44,000 crorefor the Department of Economic Affairs to provide for projects/programmes/departments exhibiting good progress on Capital Expenditure

Advanced Traffic management system in all new 4 and 6-lane highways:

• Speed radars
• Variable message signboards
• GPS enabled recovery vans will be installed

 Power Infrastructure

• 139 Giga Watts of installed capacity and 41 lakh circuit kmof transmission lines added, and additional 2.8 crore households connected in past 6 years
• Consumers to have alternatives to choose the Distribution Company for enhancing competitiveness
• 3,05,984 croreover 5 years for a revamped, reforms-based and result-linked new power distribution sector scheme
• A comprehensive National Hydrogen Energy Mission 2021-22to be launched.

Ports, Shipping, Waterways

• 2,000 croreworth 7 projects to be offered in PPP-mode in FY21-22 for operation of major ports
• Indian shipping companies to get  1624 croreworth subsidy support over 5 years in global tenders of Ministries and CPSEs
• To double the recycling capacityof around 4.5 Million Light Displacement Tonne (LDT) by 2024; to generate an additional 1.5 lakh jobs

Petroleum & Natural Gas 

• Extention of Ujjwala Schemeto cover 1 crore more beneficiaries
• To add 100 more districtsto the City Gas Distribution network in next 3 years
• A new gas pipeline project in J&K
• An independent Gas Transport System Operatorto be set up for facilitation and coordination of booking of common carrier capacity in all-natural gas pipelines on a non-discriminatory open access basis 

3.Inclusive Development for Aspirational India

Agriculture

• Ensured MSP at minimum 1.5 timesthe cost of production across all commodities.
• With steady increase in the procurement, payment to farmers increased as under:
• SWAMITVA Schemeto be extended to all States/UTs,  1.80 lakh property-owners in 1,241 villages have already been provided cards
• Agricultural credittarget enhanced to  16.5 lakh crore in FY22 – animal husbandry, dairy, and fisheries to be the focus areas
• Rural Infrastructure Development Fundto be enhanced to  40,000 crore from Rs. 30,000 crore
• To double the Micro Irrigation Fund to Rs. 10,000 crore
• ‘Operation Green Scheme’to be extended to 22 perishable products, to boost value addition in agriculture and allied products
• Around 68 crore farmersregistered and Rs. 1.14 lakh crore of trade value carried out through e-NAMs; 1,000 more mandis to be integrated with e-NAM to bring transparency and competitiveness.
• APMCs to get access to the Agriculture Infrastructure Fundsfor augmenting infrastructure facilities 

Migrant Workers and Labourers 

• One Nation One Ration Cardscheme for beneficiaries to claim rations anywhere in the country – migrant workers to benefit the most
• Scheme implementation so far covered 86% of beneficiaries across 32 States and UTs
• Remaining 4 states to be integrated in next few months
• Portal to collect informationon unorganized labour force, migrant workers especially, to help formulate schemes for them
• Implementation of 4 labour codesunderway
• Social security benefits for gig and platform workers too
• minimum wages and coverage under the Employees State Insurance Corporation applicable for all categories of workers
• Women workers allowed in all categories, including night-shifts with adequate protection
• Compliance burden on employers reduced with single registration and licensing, and online returns

Financial Inclusion

• Under Stand Up India Schemefor SCs, STs and women,
• Margin money requirement reduced to 15%
• To also include loans for allied agricultural activities
• 15,700 crorebudget allocation to MSME Sector, more than double of this year’s BE

4. Reinvigorating Human Capital

School Education 

• 15,000 schoolsto be strengthened by implementing all NEP components. Shall act as exemplar schools in their regions for mentoring others
• 100 new Sainik Schoolsto be set up in partnership with NGOs/private schools/states 

Higher Education 

• Legislation to be introduced to setupHigher Education Commission of India as an umbrella body with 4 separate vehicles for standard-setting, accreditation, regulation, and funding
• Creation of formal umbrella structure to cover all Govt. colleges, universities, research institutions in a city for greater synergy.
• Glue grant to implement the same across 9 cities
• Central University to come up inLeh for accessibility of higher education in Ladakh 

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Welfare 

• 750 Eklavya model residential schoolsin tribal areas:
• Unit cost of each school to be increased to  38 crore
• For hilly and difficult areas, to  48 crore
• Focus on creation of robust infrastructure facilities for tribal students
• Revamped Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for welfare of SCs
• 35,219 crore enhanced Central Assistance for 6 years till 2025-2026
• 4 croreSC students to benefit.

5. Skilling

• Proposed amendment to Apprenticeship Act to enhance opportunities for youth
• Rs. 3000 crore for realignment of existing National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) towards post-education apprenticeship, training of graduates and diploma holders in Engineering
• Initiatives for partnership with other countries in skilling to be taken forward, similar to partnership:

• With UAE to benchmark skill qualifications, assessment, certification, and deployment of certified workforce
• With Japan for a collaborative Training Inter Training Programme (TITP) to transfer of skills, technique and knowledge

Scheme to promote digital payments

• The government proposed Rs 1,500 crore-scheme to promote digital payments in the country.

5. Innovation and R&D

· Modalities of National Research Foundation announced in July 2019 –

• • Rs. 50,000 crore outlay over 5 years
  • To strengthen overall research ecosystem with focus on national-priority thrust areas
• Rs. 1,500 crore for proposed scheme to promote digital modes of payment
• National Language Translation Mission (NTLM) to make governance-and-policy related knowledge available in major Indian languages

· PSLV-CS51 to be launched by New Space India Limited (NSIL) carrying Brazil’s Amazonia Satellite and some Indian satellites

• As part of the Gaganyaan mission activities:
  • 4 Indian astronauts being trained on Generic Space Flight aspects, in Russia
  • First unmanned launch is slated for December 2021
• Rs. 4,000 crore over five years for Deep Ocean Mission survey exploration and conservation of deep sea biodiversity.

6. Minimum Government, Maximum Governance

• Measures being undertaken to bring reforms in Tribunals to ensure speedy justice
• National Commission for Allied Healthcare Professionals already introduced to ensure transparent and efficient regulation of the 56 allied healthcare professions
• The National Nursing and Midwifery Commission Bill introduced for the same in nursing profession

· Proposed Conciliation Mechanism with mandate for quick resolution of contractual disputes with CPSEs

• Rs. 3,768 crore allocated for first digital census in the history of India

· Rs. 300 crore grant to the Government of Goa for the diamond jubilee celebrations of the state’s liberation from Portuguese

· Rs. 1,000 crore for the welfare of Tea workers especially women and their children in Assam and West Bengal through a special scheme