As director of a Business School that is in the business of higher education, I am particularly happy that the contribution of the private educational institutions in knowledge creation is now being explicitly recognized, and the allocation of Rs. 20000 crores in Research Development and Innovation is therefore a welcome step.
More emphasis on MSMEs, Women Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups
As to how this money will be allocated, and how the private institutions would be chosen for this fund allocation, it therefore remains of great interest to us.
Countries that have made the transition to developed status have all invested in education.
While the contribution of Science and Technology to our country’s welfare is not much in doubt, it would have been nice if the fellowships for technical research being extended in this budget were also towards research in better Management practices.
Budget allocation of ₹2.66 lakh crore for rural development will enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability.
Modi 3.0 Government’s 1st Budget 2024 perceived by Industry as a “Budget of Hope”
While this budget is filled with enthusiasm for all the new schemes, care should be taken to ensure that fund allocation for existing schemes, especially those concerned with universal primary education, and basic healthcare do not stagnate or decline over time.
Budget 2025- 2026 have a potential to create an inclusive and sustainable economy.
Power Sector : Distribution loss to be cut
In the area of power sector reforms, significant improvements have been made over the years, many citizens are provided with free electricity at free or at subsidized rates, the challenge still remains as to how to fund this expense. Piped water and electricity are one of our basic requirements. Power sector reforms should therefore concentrate more on funding investments in reducing transmission and distribution losses, which are still way above in our country as compared to the international standards.
Enhancing Budget Allocation : A crucial step for Transformative Higher education
Being from a backward state my concern still remains about larger funds coming to the state from GST revenues
In the area of direct tax reforms, the rise in exemption limits is a very welcome step, it is expected to boost productivity and growth and measures to encourage voluntary compliance and reduce compliance burden are all in the right direction. Reforms in the indirect taxes, removal of 7 tariff rates, improved access to life saving medicines by placing them in the exempted list of taxes are all welcome. Being from a backward state my concern still remains about larger funds coming to the state from GST revenues. The move from VAT to GST was a move from origin-based tax to a destination-based tax. That is prior to GST, the state where production took place and received the tax revenues, whereas now the state where consumption takes place gets the revenues.
Jharkhand being a state that has a strong production base from iron and steel but has a weak consumption base being a poor state. The GST compensation for the first five years did help in reducing the financial stress. We need to figure out how best to improve not just our state finances but our receipts from the Central kitty. That all indicators of deficit, fiscal deficit, primary deficit and revenue deficit show a declining trend from 2021-22 to the present can definitely be appreciated as good fiscal management. Given the major expenditure on major items provided in the end of the budget summary, I was curious to work out the proportion of expenditure spent on education and health, and those worked out to be 6.97% and 5.32% respectively.
While I have no objections to the second largest expenditure being on rural development which is 14.46%, I would have been happier if the part of the expenditure for the sector receiving the largest share which is defense at 26.66% were diverted to Social Welfare which stands at 3.26%.
Dr George Sebastian, SJ. Director, XLRI, Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India.
