Budget nuts and bolts

Funds for women and children
Adequate funds have been allocated for programmes that benefit women, children and the minorities -" Rs 41,561 crore to the scheduled caste sub-plan and Rs 24,598 crore to the tribal sub-plan. The total is an increase of 12.5 per cent over the budget estimates and 31 per cent over the revised estimates for the current year. Rs 97,134 crore has been allocated for the gender budget and Rs 77,236 crore on children in 2013-14.

Addressing gender discrimination
To address the concerns of young women facing gender discrimination everywhere, especially at the work place, the ministry of women and child development has been asked to design schemes that will address these concerns. The Budget has proposed an additional sum of Rs 200 crore and has asked the ministry to begin work.
 

More funds for minority education
The Maulana Azad Education Foundation has been allocated Rs 160 crore for its corpus fund. It is the main vehicle to implement educational schemes and channel funds to non-government organisations for the minorities. Currently, its corpus stands at Rs 750 crore. The government has also accepted its request to add medical aid to its objectives. For this, an allocation of Rs 100 crore has been made to launch the initiative.

More money for the disabled
An allocation of Rs 110 crore has been made to the department of disability affairs for the Assistance to Disabled Persons For Purchase/Fitting Of Aids/Appliances Scheme in 2013-14 against the revised estimates of Rs 75 crore in the current year.

Caring for citizens' health
The National Health Mission, combining the rural and the proposed urban missions, will get Rs 21,239 crore, a rise of 24.3 per cent over the revised estimates. The National Programme for the Health Care of the Elderly is being implemented in 100 districts of 21 states. Eight regional geriatric centres are being funded for developing dedicated geriatric departments, for which Rs 150 crore has been allocated.

Boost for Indian medicinal systems
To encourage ayurveda, unani, siddha and homoeopathy through the National Health Mission, an allocation of Rs 1,069 crore is being proposed to be made to the department of AYUSH.

Support to AIIMS-like institutions
The six All India Institute of Medical Sciences-like institutions admitted their first batch of students in the academic session that commenced in September 2012. The hospitals attached to the colleges will be functional in 2013-14, and an allocation of Rs 1,650 crore has been proposed for them.

Pushing education for teens
The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan has been allocated Rs 3,983 crore, a rise of 25.6 per cent over this year's revised estimates.

Scholarships for the needy
The Budget has proposed giving away thousands of scholarships to students belonging to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes and minorities, and female children, in 2013-14. For this purpose, an allocation of Rs 5,284 crore is being proposed to the various ministries, compared with Rs 4,575 crore in the revised estimates for the current year.

Focus on Nalanda University
The Budget has committed to establish Nalanda University as a centre of educational excellence.

Attacking malnutrition
An allocation of Rs 300 crore is being made for a multi-sectoral programme to reduce maternal and child malnutrition in a country with abundant foodgrains. The programme, which was implemented last year, is being extended from 100 districts to cover 200 districts next year.

Aiding green revolution in the east
An allocation of Rs 1,000 crore is being made to continue to support the eastern Indian states which are ushering in the green revolution. The states include Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and they are doing so by contributing more to the country's rice production.

Improving agricultural yields
A sum of Rs 500 crore will be allocated to start a programme for crop diversification that would promote technological innovation and encourage farmers to choose crop alternatives, especially in green revolution states where yields are stagnating.

New agricultural research centres
A National Institute of Biotic Stress Management for addressing plant protection issues will be established at Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The Indian Institute of Agricultural Bio-technology will be established at Ranchi, Jharkhand, and will serve as a centre of excellence in agricultural bio-technology.

Rejuvenating coconut production
An additional sum of Rs 75 crore is being provided to extend the pilot scheme to replant and rejuvenate coconut gardens that was implemented in some districts of Kerala and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands now to the entire state of Kerala.

Govt backs farmer-producer bodies
The government will provide matching equity grants to registered Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) up to a maximum of Rs 10 lakh to enable them to leverage working capital from financial institutions: Rs 50 crore is being allocated for this. A Credit Guarantee Fund will also be created in the Small Farmers' Agri Business Corporation, with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore.

Money for livestock mission
An allocation of Rs 307 crore is being made for the National Livestock Mission, which will be launched in 2013-14 to attract investment and to enhance productivity, taking into account local agro-climatic conditions. There will be a sub-mission for increasing the availability of feed and fodder.

Pushing infrastructure investments
India Infrastructure Finance Corporation Limited, in partnership with the Asian Development Bank, will offer credit enhancement to infrastructure companies that wish to access the bond market to tap long-term funds.

Support for NE states
The government will seek the assistance of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to build roads in the Northeastern states and connect them to Myanmar. Multilateral development banks are keen to assist in efforts to promote regional connectivity.

Encouraging apparel parks
Rs 50 crore has been allocated to the ministry of textiles to provide an additional grant of up to Rs 10 crore to each apparel park within the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks to house apparel manufacturing units.

Addressing ecological concerns
An allocation of Rs 50 crore in 2013-14 has been made for the Integrated Processing Development Scheme, to be implemented in the 12th Plan, to address the environmental concerns of the textile industry, including improving the effluent treatment infrastructure.

Benefiting 400,000 artisans
The assistance of multilateral development banks will be leveraged to extend the scheme for regeneration of traditional industries to 800 clusters during the 12th Plan. About 400,000 artisans are expected to benefit.

Incentive for wind energy
The ministry of new and renewable energy has been allocated Rs 800 crore for the reintroduction of 'generation-based incentive' for wind energy projects. To provide low-cost finance, the government will also provide low-interest-bearing funds from the National Clean Energy Fund to IREDA to on-lend to viable renewable energy projects. The scheme will have a life span of five years.

Aid for backward regions
An allocation of Rs 11,500 crore has been made to the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF), which is a vital source of gap funding. Another sum of Rs 1,000 crore will be allocated for left-wing-extremist-affected districts. The BRGF will include a state component for Bihar, the Bundelkhand region, West Bengal, the KBK districts of Odisha and the 82 districts under the Integrated Action Plan.

Support for skill development
The National Skill Development Corporation has been set an ambitious target of skilling 50 million people in the 12th Plan period, including nine million in 2013-14. Funds for this project will be released by the National Rural Livelihood Mission and the National Urban Livelihood Mission. Five per cent of the Border Area Development Programme Fund, 10 per cent of the Special Central Assistance to the Scheduled Caste sub-plan and the Tribal sub-plan, and some other funds will also be used for this.

Fund for innovations
Rs 200 crore has been set aside to fund organisations that will scale up and make scientific and technological innovations, and products which are meant for the common people. The National Innovation Council will formulate a scheme for the management and application of the fund.

Grants for institutions of excellence
Rs 100 crore will be provided as grants to support institutions of excellence, including Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh campus; Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi; Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati campus; and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.

Support for new crop varieties
Responding to the suggestions of eminent agricultural scientists, the government has agreed to start a pilot programme on nutri-farms to introduce new crop varieties that are rich in micro-nutrients such as iron-rich bajra, protein-rich maize and zinc-rich wheat. An allocation of up to Rs 200 crore has been proposed to start the pilots.

839 new FM channels soon
In all, 839 new FM radio channels will be auctioned in 2013-14 and, after the auction, all cities having a population of more than 100,000 will be covered by private FM radio services.

Strengthening panchayati raj
Keeping in view the importance of building capacity in panchayati raj institutions, the government had proposed to allocate Rs 455 crore to the ministry of panchayati raj. It will now provide an additional Rs 200 crore, which will include the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan.

Funds for postal IT upgrade
The government has initiated an ambitious information technology-driven project to modernise the postal network at a cost of Rs 4,909 crore. Post offices will become part of the core banking solution and offer real-time banking services. For this, Rs 532 crore has been allocated for 2013-14.

Making women feel secure
The government will set up a Nirbhaya Fund for the safety and empowerment of women, in which it will contribute Rs 1,000 crore. The Ministry of Women and Child Development and other ministries concerned will be requested to work out the details of the structure, scope and application of the fund.

Allocation for education
An allocation of Rs 65,867 crore has been made to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, an increase of 17 per cent over the revised estimates of the previous year. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Right to Education Act are firmly in place. The government will allocate Rs 27,258 crore for SSA in 2013-14.

Funds for urban transportation
Rs 14,873 crore has been allocated to JNNURM, as against the revised estimate of Rs 7,383 crore in the current year. Of this, a significant portion will be used to support the purchase of up to 10,000 buses, especially in hill states.

Focus on early childhood care
An allocation of Rs 17,700 crore in 2013-14, representing an increase of 11.7 per cent, has been made to Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), which continues to focus on early childhood care and education. ICDS was able to spend the entire amount of Rs 15,850 crore provided in 2012-13. It is proposed to carve out Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana-II (PMGSY-II) and allocate a portion of the funds to the new programme, which will benefit states such as Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan. Details of PMGSY-II are to be announced by the Minister of Rural Development in due course.

Higher investment in agriculture
The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana is intended to mobilise higher investment in agriculture and the National Food Security Mission is intended to bridge yield gaps. The Budget has provided Rs 9,954 crore and Rs 2,250 crore, respectively, for these two programmes.

Raise corpus for RIDF
The corpus of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF-XIX) has been raised to Rs 20,000 crore in 2013-14. Nabard operates the fund and has successfully utilised 18 tranches so far.

Equity savings scheme liberalised
The Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme will be liberalised to enable the first-time investor to invest in mutual funds as well as listed shares, and she can do so, not in one year alone, but in three successive years. The income limit will be raised from Rs 10,00,000 to Rs 12,00,000.

Factoring gets support
The Factoring Act, 2011, has been passed by Parliament. The Budget has provided a corpus of Rs 500 crore to the Small Industries Development Bank of India to set up a Credit Guarantee Fund for factoring.

India's first women's bank
India's first women's bank is to be set up as a public sector bank with Rs 1,000 crore as initial capital. It is envisaged that it will be staffed by women and cater to women borrowers.

Social security system on the anvil
The Rashtriya Swasthiya Bima Yojana, which covers 34 million families below the poverty line, will now be extended to other categories such as rickshaw, auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers, sanitation workers, rag pickers and mine workers. A comprehensive and integrated social security package for the unorganised sector will include life-cum-disability cover, health cover, maternity assistance and pension benefits. It is proposed to facilitate convergence among the various stakeholder ministries/departments, so that a comprehensive social security system can be evolved.