The first Union budget of the Modi 3.0 government saw a concerted effort at women-led development, with the Finance Minister announcing more than ₹3 lakh crore for schemes benefiting women and girls
| Photo Credit: M. Moorthy

The first Union budget of the Modi 3.0 government saw a concerted effort at women-led development, with the Finance Minister announcing more than ₹3 lakh crore for schemes benefiting women and girls, and promised a look at further lowering duties for properties purchased by women.

She also announced a new pension scheme named ‘Vatsalya’. A contributory pension scheme, this will have contributions from parents and guardians. On the child attaining the age of majority, the plan can be converted seamlessly into a regular National Pension System (NPS) account.

Other announcements include the setting up of special working women’s hostels and creches in collaboration with industries to facilitate women’s employment, and promoting women-specific skilling programmes and support for women’s self help groups.

According to an analysis by The Hindu’s data team, the allocation for the Ministry of Women and Child Development has actually seen a dip, though very marginal, of 0.03%. While the budget estimate for FY25 is ₹26,092 crore, the revised estimate in FY24 was ₹25,448 crore.

The allocations for schemes coming under the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry, including ‘Samarthya’ (supporting projects such as women’s hostels), ‘Swadhar Greh’, and ‘Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana’, have also been increased slightly.

A significant portion of the WCD Ministry’s budget is directed towards Centrally-sponsored schemes, which received ₹25,848 crore.

The flagship schemes under the Ministry, including ‘Saksham Anganwadi’, POSHAN 2.0, Mission Vatsalya and Mission Shakti, have been given substantial funds to continue their efforts in improving nutrition, child protection, and women’s empowerment.

What activists really find encouraging though are the doubling of the upper limit of Mudra loans to ₹20 lakh to promote entrepreneurship in the country as, according to them, nearly 60% of entrepreneurs in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector are women, and they are desperately in need of formal loans.

The credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs is also likely to be benificial for women, they feel.

“The MSME sector has the maximum number of women who struggle to get collateral-free loans. These efforts made in the Union budget would be hugely beneficial to them as we have observed in our work with communities,” Kalpana Ajayan, regional head, South Asia, Women’s World Banking, and Member, Gender Committee, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub, said.

She said that the Union budget missed out on the need for gender aggregated data to be placed in the public domain in order to see how women have benefitted from gender-budgeting over the years.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2024 on July 23 at 11 a.m. It will be a record seventh consecutive Budget presentation for Ms. Sitharaman.

The Budget Session of the Parliament started on Monday with the Economic Survey 2023-24 being tabled in both Houses. The session is scheduled to have 16 sittings and is likely to conclude on August 12.

The Budget 2024 presentation will be streamed on various platforms. Viewers can watch the Budget 2024 speech by Nirmala Sitharaman live at The Hindu. Follow our liveblog for all the latest news, reactions, and analysis of Budget 2024. The Finance Minister’s address will also be available to stream live via the Sansad TV.

Viewers of Sansad TV will have the option of listening to the Budget speech 2024-25 in Hindi. As expected the Budget Speech will be in English. STV 1 will telecast the Budget speech live in English only. Whereas Budget speech in Hindi can be listened on STV 2. For accessing the Budget speech in Hindi on STV 2, viewers will need to navigate through the language settings of the set-top box by using the remote control. By selecting Hindi language one can listen Budget speech in Hindi.

The July 23 Budget speech is expected to focus on infrastructure development, social welfare schemes, measures to boost economic growth and simplification of personal tax regime.

People watch the live budget speech telecast from Parliament House, as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2024 on February 01, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1 presented her sixth consecutive Budget with a speech lasting 56 minutes, her shortest-ever.

Dressed in a turquoise-coloured embroidered Kantha silk saree, as Ms. Sitharaman delivered her speech, it was lauded at regular intervals by the treasury benches — her remarks on the presentation of the full budget by “our government” in July receiving the loudest cheer.

Union Budget 2024 | Follow live updates here

The opposition members listened to Ms. Sitharaman’s budget speech with rapt attention, barring some voices of disapproval to the Minister’s reference to her government returning to power after the Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier, BJP members raised slogans of Bharat Mata ki Jai, Jai Shri Ram, Jai Siya Ram as Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered the Lok Sabha chamber and took his seat a few minutes before 11:00 a.m.

At 56 minutes, it was Ms. Sitharaman’s shortest budget speech. She also holds the distinction of delivering the longest budget speech at two hours and forty minutes in 2020.

Also Read: Union Budget | Indian economy witnessed profound positive transformation in last 10 years, says Nirmala Sitharaman

In 2019, as India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister, Ms. Sitharaman’s budget speech had lasted for two hours and 17 minutes. In 2021, her speech lasted for one hour and 50 minutes, followed by 92 minutes in 2022 and 87 minutes in 2023.

Ms. Sitharaman’s budget speech found no mention of Tamil poets and thinkers unlike previous occasions, but she referred to Prime Minister Modi at least eight times and quoted from his speeches.

The public galleries saw thin attendance with a few Rajya Sabha members occupying seats in Gallery 2, while relatives of Finance Minister Sitharaman — Krishnamurthy Lakshminarayan and Vidya Lakshminarayan — and her daughter Vangmayi Parakala were seated in the first row of Gallery 3.

Ms. Sitharaman, Ministers of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and Bhagwat Karad, and top officers from the Finance Ministry called on President Droupadi Murmu before presenting the Budget.

The President gave Ms. Sitharaman a spoonful of curd and sugar and extended her best wishes for the presentation of the Union Budget.

In her budget speech, Ms. Sitharaman coined new expansion of FDI – First, Develop India and for GDP – Governance, Development and Performance.

Also Read: Govt to take up next-generation reforms to facilitate growth: Sitharaman

“Besides delivering on high growth in terms of Gross Domestic Product, the government is equally focused on a more comprehensive ‘GDP’, i.e., ‘Governance, Development and Performance’,” Ms. Sitharaman said.

In 2019, Finance Minister Sitharaman did away with the traditional Budget briefcase and instead went for a ‘bahi-khata’ with the national emblem to carry the speech and other documents on a tablet computer, a tradition she stuck to on February 1.

JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan ‘Lalan’ Singh, whose party re-joined the NDA last week, was seen applauding the budget speech on regular occasions.

The Prime Minister walked up to Ms. Sitharaman at the conclusion of her speech and congratulated her for the presentation of the interim budget.

Several Ministers were also seen congratulating Ms. Sitharaman after her speech.