Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday (Feb 1) announced that a corpus of ₹1 Lakh Crore (or over $12bn) will be established with provision for a ’50-year interest-free loan to provide long-term financing with no or less interest rates’.
“For our tech-savvy youth, this will be a golden era. A corpus of rupees one lakh crore will be established with fifty-year interest-free loan. The corpus will provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or nil interest rates,” Sitharaman said.
The finance minister reasoned that this would “encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains. We need to have programmes that combine the powers of our youth and technology.”
The Indian finance minister also mentioned that a new scheme will be launched “for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes and expediting atmanirbharta (or self-sufficiency)”. Sitharaman did not specify the details of the scheme.
Over 25 million people out of multidimensional poverty in last decade: Sitharaman
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday (Feb 31) presented her sixth consecutive budget, at par with the record set by the former Prime Minister Morarji Desai who also held finance portfolio in the 1960s.
Presenting the interim Budget 2024-25 ahead of the general elections in the spring, Sitaraman said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is making efforts to make India a developed country by 2047.
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Poor, women, youth and farmers are four castes for the government, she added.
India remains the fastest-growing major economy in the world and in the coming years will become the world’s third-largest economy with a $5 trillion Gross Domestic Product.
Hailing the poverty alleviation steps, Sitharaman said that 250 million (or 25 Crore) people came out of multi-dimensional poverty since 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party first came to power in New Delhi’s corridors of power to govern the world’s largest democracy.
(With inputs from agencies)
