#17 Union budget 2023-24 analysis for social impact sector

This edition analyses the union budget across key themes in the social impact sector, and highlights key initiatives and major changes in the social impact ecosystem across various government schemes.

Exactly a year ago, I wrote my last edition of the newsletter on the implications of the Union Budget 2022-23 on the social impact sector. In this edition, I endeavour to further the union budget analysis for this year (2023-24) and provide a macro-view on key updates, schemes, budgetary allocations, and their implications on various themes of the social impact ecosystem. Budget analysis is critical for non-profits, social organizations, and philanthropic organizations. This helps in strategic planning, redesigning programmes in alignment with strategic priorities, and optimizing resource allocation. In addition, it sets the tone and direction of the complementing work undertaken by various stakeholders in the social impact ecosystem to the key priorities of the government, thereby impacting communities at scale.

The prerequisites for budget analysis were covered in the previous edition, and can be referred to using this link. It provides a primer for understanding budget estimates, revised estimates, and actuals.

This edition analyses the union budget, focusing on schemes and resource allocation across major themes. The key emerging themes include

• Agriculture and Allied sector

• Food Security

• Education

• Environment

• Healthcare

• Water Resources and Sanitation

• Labour, Employment, and Skill Development

• MSMEs

• Rural Development

• Women and Child Development

This edition is more of an analysis piece, and does not touch upon the actionable insights. I hope to cover some of the insights emerging from this union budget analysis in the next couple of editions.

I have omitted the analysis from initiatives under the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

I hope writing this edition becomes a good start for me to post regularly on this platform. Please do subscribe to this newsletter, and support my work.

Grab a cup of coffee, and let’s dive in.

Agriculture and Allied Sector

This sector broadly covers initiatives in the agriculture sector, and other supporting and allied sectors like fisheries, fertilizers, consumer affairs and public distribution, and food processing.

• Social Security in Agriculture: Continued focus on major initiatives like crop insurance with a capital outlay of Rs 13,625 Cr, and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) with a capital outlay of INR 60,000 Cr.

• MIS-PISS Scheme: The market intervention scheme and price support scheme (MIS-PSS) is being shut down after the end of the next fiscal, with a total annual outlay of INR 1500 Cr to be spent this year. Under this scheme, NAFED, Central Warehousing Corporation, National Consumer Cooperative Federation of India and Small Farmers Agro Business Consortium have been designated as Central agencies to undertake procurement of Oilseed and Pulses under the price support scheme and also work to provide remunerative prices to farmers for their produce.

• Crop Residue Management: No allocation for the Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for in-situ Management of Crop Residue. The onus now lies on the states for funding these initiatives, with the focus states being Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.

• Distribution of Pulses: Increase in the distribution of pulses to states and UTs for welfare schemes, with a capital outlay of Rs 800 Cr, a sharp rise from the Rs 9 Cr last year, with Rs 166 Cr estimated spent by the end of the current fiscal year.

• FPO promotion scheme: Increase in the 10,000 FPO scheme allocation of an additional Rs 955 Cr, with Rs 955 estimated to be spent by the end of the fiscal. This is almost double the previous budget estimates of 500 Cr.

• Agri Infrastructure Fund: Agri-infrastructure fund has an additional allocation of Rs 500 Cr, a 300% increase showcasing a strategic push towards increasing infrastructure support in post-harvest practices.

• Agri-census and agri-economics and statistics: An additional 80 Crores is allocated for an agriculture census and Rs 220 Cr for agriculture economics and statistics. Hypothesis: This capital allocation may form the base for the digital infrastructure for agriculture.

• Green Revolution - The capital outlay was shifted to the central government instead of transferring it to the states, under the Krishionnati Yojana.

• Agri-financial institutions (NABARD) additional funding: We observe a reduction of allocation to Crop Husbandry economic services by Rs 10,000 Crores. In contrast, under the economic services department heads, agricultural financial institutions, the primary being NABARD, will receive an additional Rs 5,000 Cr.

• No capital outlay for FY 2023-24 for Climate Resilient Agriculture Initiative, and National Agricultural Science Fund: Under Climate Resilient Agriculture Initiative, strategic research and technology demonstration are conducted to enhance the resilience of Indian agriculture to climate change and climate vulnerability. The research on adaptation and mitigation covers crops, livestock, fisheries and natural resource management. This scheme will be merged with Natural Resource Management Institutes, including the Agro-Forestry Research scheme, with effect from the financial year 2023-24. The National Agricultural Science Fund supports basic and strategic research in agriculture to address the prioritized research problems. This scheme will be merged under a non-scheme budget from 2023-24.

• Fertilizer Subsidies: Urea subsidies continue to dominate, with a total capital outlay of Rs 1.04 lakh Cr for domestic urea payments, and Rs 31,000 Cr for payment for urea imports.

• Fisheries - Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana ( PMMSY): With an increased capital outlay of Rs 2000 Cr, this scheme aims to bring about Blue Revolution through sustainable, responsible and holistic development of the fisheries sector in India, including the welfare of fishermen. PMMSY is implemented in all the states and Union Territories for a period of 5 (five) years from FY 2020-21 to FY 2024-25.

• Animal Husbandry and Dairy: The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy gets additional funding for core schemes of dairy development (total of 326 Cr, an increase of 48%) and the National Livestock Mission (total Rs 410 Cr, an increase of 17%), and the department heads of economic services, an increase of 62% for Rs for Animal Husbandry (Rs 2650 Cr), and an increase of 28% for Dairy development.

• Food Processing: Both of the flagship central schemes - PM Kisan Sampada Yojana (Rs 923 Cr) and Production-Linked Incentive Scheme for the Food Processing Industry (Rs 1529 Cr, up from Rs 1022 Cr) get an increase in capital outlay.

Need Additional Information

Minimum Support Price (MSP) -Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Yojna (PM-AASHA): Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyaan (PM-AASHA) is a scheme to ensure minimum support price to farmers comprising of Price Support Scheme (PSS), oilseeds and copra, Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS) and pilot of Private Procurement & Stockist Scheme (PPSS). The revised budget estimates are pegged at Rs 1 Cr, with only Rs 10 lakh being allocated for FY 2023-24. I have not been able to come with a logical explanation for this.

Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture: The finance minister, in her budget speech, announced a special initiative called the Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture. The Digital public infrastructure for agriculture will be built as an open source, open standard and interoperable public good. This will enable inclusive, farmer-centric solutions through relevant information services for crop planning and health, improved access to farm inputs, credit, and insurance, help for crop estimation, market intelligence, and support for the growth of agri-tech industry and start-ups. the

The current allocation for digital agriculture is a mere Rs 70 Cr, which falls under the Green Revolution initiative. There is no clarity on how the government aims to build or pay for this platform. Hypothesis: This will be under the same public-private partnership (PPP) development framework as ONDC, OCEN, Account Aggregator, with an organization like iSpirit or TCS taking up the charge.

This is a major move towards the formalization of agriculture markets, and helping digitization of agriculture. The aim is to provide farmers at the last-mile with affordable and quality access to agri-advisory services, improved price discovery, improved price realization and reduction in overheads for agri-marketplace services and agri-input services, and affordable access to agri-financing across public and private financial institutions.

Food Security

From 1st January 2023, the central government launched a scheme to supply free food grain to all Antyodaya and priority households for the next year, under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). The capital outlay for this scheme is INR 2 lakh Cr, borne completely by the Government.

• Food Subsidy capital outlay: This is reflected in the budget estimates, with the revised estimates for Food Subsidy to Food Corporation of India under the National Food Security Act pegged at Rs 2.14 lakh Cr for FY 2022-23, and an additional budget estimate of Rs 1.37 lakh Cr for FY 2023-24.

• The revised estimates (FY 2022-23) for Food Subsidy for Decentralized Procurement of Foodgrains under NFSA is Rs 72,282 Cr, with an additional capital outlay of Rs 59,793 Cr for FY 2023-24.

• Ways and Means advance: The budget estimates for Ways and Means advance to the Food Corporation of India in FY 2023-24 is Rs 25,000. This is almost double of what has been observed in the previous four years, with an average working capital advance of Rs 10,000 per annum since FY 2018-19 to date. The Ways and Means Advance to the Food Corporation of India is the upfront investment made by the government to meet the cash flow requirements towards procurement of foodgrains for the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), meeting buffer stock requirements and handling of foodgrains.

• Fortification of Rice: Government seems to be scrapping the scheme of Fortification of Rice and its Distribution under the Public Distribution System, with no capital outlay for FY 2023-24.

Education

The budget speech covered topics on teacher’s training, setting up of National Digital Library for Children and Adolescents, and build a culture of reading, and making up for pandemic-time learning loss. This did fall short in many ways than not, especially with the new ASER report that provided insights on the declining student learning outcomes, and the urgent need to focus on strengthening public sector education.

Key highlights:

• Autonomous bodies: Under the department of school education and literacy, the government has provided additional funding to Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) and Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), along with NCERT. This reinforces the government’s commitment to improving public schooling in India, with a potential expansion of both KVS and NVS in the coming 18 months.

• Central Schemes: Key schemes like Samagra Siksha Abhiyan and PM-POSHAN (mid-day meal scheme) have similar trends in capital allocation for FY 2023-24.

• Teacher Training: The flagship scheme of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching has seen its capital outlay almost double, to Rs 45 Cr.

New Initiatives:

• PM Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI): With a capital outlay of Rs 4000 Cr, the Scheme of PM Shri earlier known as Exemplar aims to prepare more than 15000 schools of excellence which will help show case the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020 and emerge as exemplars and schools of excellence over a period of time. They will provide leadership in their respective regions in providing high-quality education in an equitable, inclusive and joyful school environment that takes care of the diverse background, multilingual needs, and different academic abilities of children and makes them active participants in their own learning process as per the vision of NEP 2020.

• New India Literacy Programme (NILP): With a capital outlay of Rs 157 Cr, A new Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Adult Education 'New India Literacy Programme (NILP)' for Financial Years 2022-27 has been designed and developed by aligning with the recommendations on 'Adult Education and Lifelong Learning' of National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.

• PM Uchchatar Shiksha Protsahan (PM-USP) Yojna: The total capital outlay for this scheme is Rs 1554 Cr. Under the higher education stream, this scheme aims to provide interest subsidy during the moratorium period on educational loans taken by students with a family income of less than Rs 4.5 lakh per annum. A student loan guarantee corpus would be created under the management of a Credit Guarantee Trust to guarantee against default in repayment of student loans. In addition, the government guarantee aims to reduce the interest rate on student loans.

  There is a component of Scholarships for College and University students, up to 2% of the students passing out of school pursue higher studies in College and University system. The scholarship amount is disbursed directly to the beneficiaries through e-banking, to avoid delays.Under higher education

  An important development here is that the existing scheme of “Scholarship for College and University students” from FY 2023-24 has been merged with PM-USP Yojna. In RE 2022-23, allocation of Rs 150 crore will be funded through MUSK (Madhyamik and Uchchtar Shiksha Kosh) .

Environment, Forests and Climate Change

Some interesting developments in this space are enumerated below:

• Environmental Knowledge and Capacity Building-The Umbrella Central Sector Scheme has two sub-schemes (i) Forestry Training and Capacity Building and (ii) Eco Task Force. The scheme Forestry Training and Capacity Building aims to cover the whole gamut of the training and exposure needs of the forestry sector personnel. The Eco Task Force scheme is being implemented through the Ministry of Defence for ecological restoration of terrains, rendered difficult due to severe degradation or remote location.

• Environmental Protection, Management and Sustainable Development: The Umbrella Scheme, which supports programmes/projects on Hazardous Substances Management, Climate Change ActionPlan, National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change and National Mission of Himalayan Studies are transferred to Non-Scheme and kept under Secretariat.

• Decision Support System for Environmental Awareness, Policy, Planning and Outcome Evaluation: The umbrella scheme is revamped as Environment Education, Awareness, Research and Skill Development. The scheme creates awareness and imparts environmental education through exhibitions and training programmes. Among other objectives is the collection of environmental information and dissemination of information to larger stakeholders. Provisions for Environment Education, Awareness and Training include provisions for Swachhta Action Plan.

Healthcare

Healthcare was a glaring omission in the budget speech by the finance minister. The speech touched upon creating 157 new nursing colleges, medical research and pharma innovation, and the launch of the Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission. Despite the increase of 2.71% since the last budget estimates, bringing the total capital outlay to Rs Rs 88,956 Cr for FY 2023-24, there is more to be desired.

• Tertiary healthcare capacity in medical education, research and clinical care: The flagship programme of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana aims at correcting regional imbalances in the availability of affordable/reliable tertiary healthcare services and also augmenting facilities for quality medical education in the country. This has broadly two components - setting up of new AIIMS, and the up-gradation of existing Government Medical Colleges/Institutions (GMCIs). The capital outlay for this scheme has been drastically reduced from Rs 10,000 Cr in 2022-23 (revised estimates of Rs 8,269 Cr) to Rs 3365 Cr. Hypothesis: The COVID-19 pandemic paused the work of facility augmentation, which was then revived in the last year. Considering the relatively low difference in the budget estimates and revised estimates of 2022-23, the committed work will continue, with the balance funding coming from the budget estimates of 2022-23. In addition, like most infrastructure augmentation projects, the government maintained a large cushion to absorb the unintended costs, thereby overcommitting. This year’s budget estimates are just a correction.

• National Aids and STD Control Programme: An additional Rs 900+ Cr capital allocation was provided to NACO, bringing the total budget estimate to Rs 3079 Cr. This is a welcome move by the government.

• Global Fund Grant under Covid-19 Response Mechanism 2021(EAP): With a capital outlay of Rs 495 Cr, this global fund provides 100% grants for mobile PSA units and advanced life support ambulances. Also included are Pressure Swing Adsorption plants, training causal booster pumps, training courses booster pump for cylinder refilling procurement of D type Oxygen cylinder and national level training workshop on Oxygen management and administrative capacity building.

• National Digital Health Mission - NHM: The budget allocation increased by Rs 140 Cr, bringing it to a total of Rs 341.2 Cr. Although this initiative is being launched under a PPP initiative, the increase in budget allocation shows the serious efforts of the Government to revolutionize the healthcare ecosystem, pushing it towards much-needed digitization efforts.

• Flexible Pool for RCH & Health System Strengthening, National Health Programme and National Urban Health Mission: Here is where the calculations get tricky, and some technical aspects need to be urgently explored. This flexible pool has three components - gross budgetary support (GBS) and support from the National Investment Fund (NIF), and the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi (PMSSN), which is a non-lapsable reserve for health expenditure.

  The net GBS support for this flexible pool has increased by a considerable Rs 8,240 Cr, bringing it to a total budget allocation of Rs 22,094 Cr for FY 2023-24. However, a combined contribution from the NIF and the PMSSN plug in the current requirement of Rs 7976 Cr, which gets accounted for in the revised estimates of FY 2022-23. This contribution from NIF and PMSSN does not continue to the budget estimates of FY 2023-24.

  Hence, even though there is a considerable difference in the budget allocation for FY 2023-24, compared with the revised estimates for FY 2022-23, it only appears to be a marginal increase. This is definitely a piece of clever accounting done by the government.

• Human Resources for Health and Medical Education: The budget allocation has been reduced by Rs 1000 crores from the budget estimates for FY 2022-23, the budget allocation of Rs 6500 for FY 2023-24 and the revised estimates of Rs 4083 Cr for FY 2022-23 might fall short of the target of setting up additional 157 nursing colleges, along with the mandated upgradation of district hospitals, pharmacy schools/colleges, paramedical institutions and account for provision increase of UG & PG seats in existing medical colleges.

• Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY): The PMJAY is the flagship health insurance scheme that provides cashless and paperless benefit cover of Rs 5 lakh per annum per family on a floater basis in the empanelled hospitals across India. The scheme has seen an increase of Rs 788 Cr, bringing the total capital outlay to Rs 7200 Cr for FY 2023-24. For a target of impacting more than 50 Cr population, this is squeezing in tight.

• Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi (PMSSN): Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi (PMSSN) is a non-lapsable reserve for health expenditure taken from the proceeds of Health, and Education Cess levied under Section 136-b of Finance Act, 2007. This has reduced over 38% of budget allocation since the previous year, bringing it down to Rs 14,589 Cr. Hypothesis: The reserve pool has reached its limit, and will get depleted by 2024-25, including the revised estimates of FY 2022-23 Rs 20,542 Cr being spent completely.

Water Resources and Sanitation

The domain of water resources and sanitation was underplayed in the FY 2023-24 budget speech by the finance minister. Under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, two main departments contribute to the budget allocation - the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, and the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. While some of the initiatives by the government in water management have strengthened budgetary allocations, the sanitation initiatives have seen minimal changes

Some of the key highlights are:

• National Ganga Plan: This initiative has seen a 42% increase in the capital outlay, bringing the total budget estimates to Rs 4,000 Cr for FY 2023-24. A major push across both revised estimates of FY 2022-23 and budget estimates of FY 2023-24 is the increase in the Non-EAP Component. The Non-EAP component includes schemes for rehabilitation and up-gradation of existing Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs) besides commissioning New STPs. This is a very strong signal by the government towards mainstreaming STP to reduce the contamination of water bodies.

• Groundwater management - Atal Bhujal Yojna: The capital allocation has increased to Rs 1,000 Cr for FY 2023-24, a steep increase from the earlier budget and revised estimates of Rs 700 Cr for FY 2022-23. This is another signal by the government of a strong commitment towards improved water management, aligning with India’s Nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

• Tap Water Connections - Jal Jeevan Mission: Jal Jeevan Mission is a flagship programme of the Government of India which aims at providing Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to every rural household by 2024. This scheme has an additional budget allocation of Rs 10,000 Cr, bringing the total allocation to Rs 69,684 Cr.

Labour, Employment and Skill Development

Under the Ministry of Labour, the allocation for the development heads responsible for Labour, Employment and Skill Development has seen a sharp decrease of over Rs 3832 Cr, bringing the total allocation to Rs 11,283 Cr for FY 2023-24. This is less than 52% of the total spent in FY 2021-22, which is quite glaring, considering the macroeconomic condition in India with regard to employment and skilling.

New schemes under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship include:

• Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) - EAP: With the budget allocation of Rs 488 Cr, this scheme aims at strengthening institutional mechanisms both at the national and state level, building a pool of quality trainers and assessors, creating convergence among all skill training activities at the state level, establishing robust monitoring and evaluation system for skill training programs. This is a World Bank assisted programme.

• Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancements (STRIVE) - EAP: With the budget allocation of Rs 300 Cr, this scheme aims at creating awareness through industry clusters/geographical chambers to address the challenge of involvement of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). This is a World Bank assisted programme.

• Strengthening of Infrastructure for Institutional Training: With the budget allocation of Rs 106 Cr, this scheme aims at strengthening infrastructure for Institutional Training, with the following components (i) Enhancing Skill Development in NE States & Sikkim to enhance the existing infrastructure of skill development in North Eastern States, (ii).Skill Development for 47 Districts Affected by Left Wing Extremism for creation of Skill Development infrastructure in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts across 10 states (iii) Upgradation of existing I.T.I. into Model I.T.Is and (iv) Scheme of Polytechnics.

• Skill India Programme: Revamping the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana from FY 2023-24, this will become the umbrella scheme including initiatives under entrepreneurship, apprenticeship promotion, and skill development. The total capital outlay for FY 2023-24 is Rs 2278, Rs 335 Cr lower than the budget estimates of FY 2022-23.

MSMEs

Some of the important developments include:

• Khadi Sector: Khadi Gramodyog Vikas Yojana gets a bump of Rs 169 Cr of additional funding, bringing the total capital outlay to Rs 917 Cr in FY 2023-24.

• Credit Support Programme: The credit support programme for MSMEs has been revived, with a total budget allocation of Rs 500 Cr in FY 2023-24. Under the credit support programme, through the Credit Guarantee Trust Fund for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises is operational. Through this scheme, the guarantee cover is provided for collateral-free credit facilities extended by Member Lending Institutions (MLIs) to new and existing Micro and Small enterprises.

• Guarantee Emergency Credit Line: Guarantee Emergency Credit Line (GECL) facility to eligible MSME borrowers continues with its commitment of providing increased credit linkages for MSME borrowers, with a capital allocation of Rs 14,100 Cr for FY 2023-24.

• Procurement and Marketing Support Scheme: This scheme has seen a five-fold increase in budget allocation, with a capital outlay of Rs 96 Cr for FY 2023-24. This scheme aims at promoting new market access initiatives like organising/participating in National / International Trade Fairs / Exhibitions / MSME Expo. etc. To create awareness and educate the MSMEs about the importance/methods/process of packaging in marketing, the latest packaging technology, import-export policy and procedure, GeM portal, MSME Conclave, latest developments in international /national trade and other topics relevant for market access developments

• Promotional Services Institutions and Programme: The objectives of the Promotional Services Institutions and Programme Scheme is to motivate youth representing different sections of the society, including SC/ST/Women, differently abled, Ex-servicemen and BPL persons, to consider self-employment or entrepreneurship as one of the career options. The ultimate objective is to promote new enterprises, capacity building of existing MSMEs and inculcate entrepreneurial culture in the country. This programme has been discontinued, and transferred to a new scheme of Entrepreneurship cum Skill Development Programme (ESDP), with a reduced budget allocation of Rs 80 Cr for FY 2023-24.

New initiatives include:

• Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance - RAMP: With an additional Rs 500 cr allocation, this scheme has a total capital outlay of Rs 1,170 Cr. This scheme aims at improving access of MSMEs to market, finance and technology upgradation. RAMP scheme would enhance the performance of MSMEs by promoting technology upgradation, innovation, digitization, market access, credit, greening initiatives, etc through active participation of the State Governments. This is a World Bank assisted scheme.

• Technology Centre Systems Programme (TCSP) EAP: To expand and upgrade the network of Technology Centres in the country, this scheme will establish 15 new Technology Centre ( TCs) and upgrade existing TCs across the country. This is a World Bank assisted scheme, with a capital outlay of Rs 350 Cr for FY 2023-24.

• Establishment of New Technology Centres: This scheme enables establishing 20 new Technology Centres and 100 new Extension Centres to enhance the outreach of Technology Centres of Ministry throughout the country. This has a capital outlay of Rs 450 Cr for FY 2023-24.

• Micro and Small Enterprise-Cluster Development Programme (MSE-CDP): Under this scheme Common Facility Centers (CFCs) are set up, along with support for setting up of new Industrial Infrastructure Development Projects (e.g. Industrial Estates) and up-gradation of existing industrial estates. This has a capital outlay of Rs 150 Cr for FY 2023-24.

• Tool Rooms & Technical Institutions (TR/TIs): Tool Rooms and Technical Institutions have been providing technology support services to MSMEs and also conductng technical training programmes for providing skilled manpower to industries. This has a capital outlay of Rs 100 Cr for FY 2023-24.

Rural Development

There is no major deviation in allocations for major schemes on Management Support to Rural Development Programs and Strengthening of District Planning Process, National Social Assistance Progam, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, and Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna.

Key highlights:

• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program: Reduction in the budget by Rs 13,000 Cr, with a total capital outlay of Rs 60,000 Cr for FY 2023-24. Considering the actual expenditure for FY 2021-22 and the revised estimates of FY 2022-23 are just over Rs 90,000 Cr, this seems to be a deliberate attempt in reduced allocations, under-committing yet over-delivering, continuing the trendline of the last four years.

• National Livelihood Mission - Ajeevika: With an increase of Rs 793 Cr, the capital outlay for Ajeevika is Rs 14,129 Cr for FY 2023-24. The interesting deviation is the reduction in NRLM (National Rural Livelihoods Mission) programme component, and an increase in the EAP (externally aided programme) component. In this case, it is the World Bank assisted programme that has a significant increase, from Rs 500 Cr for FY 2022-23 to Rs 3,272 Cr for FY 2023-24.

• Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission: There is no budgetary allocation for FY 2023-24, which has a revised estimate of Rs 988 Cr for FY 2022-23. However, the footnotes mention Rs 27,945 crore of investment has been proposed to be invested under Convergence and Critical Gap Funding (CGF) activities. Hypothesis: This programme will be discontinued from the next financial year.

• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY): In alignment with the push towards strengthening infrastructure spending, the capital allocation for PMAY has increased by over Rs 30,000 Cr, with the current capital outlay of Rs 54,487 Cr for FY 2023-24. This is a major push towards affordable housing, with the aim to complete the target of 2.95 Cr Pucca houses, of which 2.13 Cr houses have been completed to date.

• Tribal Development: There is an increase of Rs 3673 Cr in capital allocation for centrally sponsored schemes for tribal development, bringing the total capital outlay to Rs 6618 Cr for FY 2023-24. The major increases are in allocation towards Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS), and the Pradhan Mantri Jan Jatiya Vikas Mission.

Women and Child Development

A key component at the start of the budget speech by the finance minister was the mention of the economic empowerment of women, with the success of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) in mobilizing rural women into 81 lakh SHGs. The government aims at a deliberate push towards the creation of producer enterprises, with the focus on taking 81 lakh SHGs to the next stage of economic empowerment through the formation of large producer enterprises or collectives, each having several thousand members and managed professionally.

Another addition was the launch of a short term women savings programme - Mahila Samman Bachat Patra is a one-time new small savings scheme, in which Mahila Samman Savings Certificate will be made available for a two-year period up to March 2025. This will offer a deposit facility of up to 2 lakhs in the name of women or girls for a tenor of 2 years at a fixed interest rate of 7.5 per cent with a partial withdrawal option.

Besides this, there are no major deviations in the capital allocation across major schemes such as Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 (Umbrella ICDS - Anganwadi Services, Poshan Abhiyan, Scheme for Adolescent Girls), Mission Shakti (Mission for Protection and Empowerment for Women), and the Mission for Protection and Empowerment for Women.

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I hope this writeup provides a broad sense of major development in capital allocations across key themes of the social impact sector. I shall endeavour to write on insights from these findings, and their implications on key programmatic interventions, strategic revisions, and funding.

Please write to me at aashir.sutar@gmail.com with your feedback, inputs, and suggestions. In case there is a topic you want me to cover, I would be happy to take in those suggestions and write about them.