Social sector in FY17: LPG for poor women is a success

As the finance minister gears up to present the Union Budget for the new financial year, Business Standard scans the 2016-17 Budget speech for a status check on key social sector announcements made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley last year and assesses how much has been achieved.

A health insurance scheme with cover up to Rs 1 lakh per family

Status: Yet to be launched. It was to be a more generous version of the existing Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana which has an insurance limit of Rs 30,000.

To provide LPG connection in the name of women members of poor households. To benefit 15 million households below the poverty line in 2016-17

 

Status: The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched on May 1. To date 16.3 million connections have been given under the scheme, surpassing the target.

To achieve 100 per cent village electrification by May 1, 2018

Status: The Prime Minister announced in his 2016 Independence Day speech to achieve full rural electrification the balance of 18,452 villages would be electrified by 2018. As of December 2016, 7,633 villages were electrified during FY17. The programme has been ramped up to ensure 100 per cent household electrification. Of the 174.6 million rural households 124.4 million are electrified at the moment.

Digital Literacy Mission Scheme for rural India to cover around 60 million additional households in the next three years

Status: The scheme was launched originally in 2014 and targets were enhanced in 2016-17. About 5.35 million individuals have been certified since inception of scheme to date. 

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY) — 100 per cent deduction for profits to an undertaking from a housing project for flats of up to 30 square metres in four metro cities and 60 square metres in other cities, approved during June 2016 to March 2019, and completed within three years of the approval. For the ‘first-home buyers’, deduction for additional interest of Rs 50,000 per annum for loans up to Rs 35 lakh sanctioned during the next financial year, provided the value of the house does not exceed Rs 50 lakh

Status: The PMAY scheme has rural and urban components. Benefits were extended under it on December 31, 2016. The target set for rural houses this year was 3,260,676, of which 76 houses were completed and 87,274 beneficiaries got their first instalment to build houses. In urban areas 6,716 houses had been completed by December 2016.

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