The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced various schemes in the Union Budget 2018-19 on February 1, 2018. These Budget schemes have been announced with the objective to uplift the poor and farmers.
The union Budget 2018-19 is the Modi government's last full year Budget in which the Finance Minister began his speech by highlighting the government's economic reforms undertaken in the last four years and its achievements.
Here, we’ll see all the new schemes launched by the government in Budget 2018-19.
1.Kifayati Aawas yojna: The Central Government will create a dedicated affordable housing fund in National Housing Bank. In the Budget 2018-19, Jaitley said that "My government will set up a dedicated affordable housing fund in the National Housing Bank, which will be funded from the loans given to priority sector." The government has planned that by the end of 2022, everyone will have their own house. For this, more than one crore households are being constructed in the rural areas in the current and next financial year under the Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana.
2.Ayushman Bharat Scheme (National Health Protection Scheme): National Health Protection Scheme will be launched to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. Under this, up to Rs 5 lakh will be provided to each family per year in secondary and tertiary care institutions. This scheme will have 50 crore beneficiaries. So far under the National Health Insurance Scheme, insurance cover of Rs 30,000 was available only. This is a big increase in this regard.
3.Kisan Credit Card to Fishermen: On the lines of the Kisan Credit Card, the Finance Minister has announced a card to fishermen and cattle owners. This will make enable them to avail the easier loans. The Government says that this will help the people associated with the milk production business in rural areas. Apart from this, financial assistance will also be provided to fisheries.
4.Gobar-Dhan Yojna (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resource Fund Scheme): The government announced a new scheme Gobar-Dhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resource Fund) scheme under its efforts to improve the lives of the villagers. The Government said that under this scheme, solid waste of dung and fields will be changed into compost, biogas and bio-CNG. He said that under the vision of inclusive society formation, the government has identified 115 districts for development.
5.National Bamboo Mission: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has also proposed the proposal of National Bamboo Mission. An amount of Rs. 1,290 crore will be allocated under this scheme. This will help in the development of bamboo production as an industry. This will help the people of rural and tribal areas.
6.Eklavya School: As per the Finance Minister, the Eklavya schools will be established for scheduled caste students by 2022 along the lines of Navodaya schools. He said that Eklavya model residential schools will be set up in each Block having more than 50 percent tribal areas and 20,000 tribal people. These schools will be part of Navodaya Vidyalayas and besides training in sports and skill development, there will also be special facilities for preserving local art and culture.
7.Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE): In his Budget 2018 speech, Jaitley unveiled a new scheme called Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education or RISE. The RISE scheme will be financed via a restructured higher education financing agency (HEFA) that is functioning for the last two months as a non-banking financial company. It aims to lend low-cost funds to government higher educational institutions. Presently, HEFA is looking to raise Rs20,000 crore and Budget announcement hiked this number to Rs1 trillion.While HEFA was granted a budgetary allocation of Rs250 crore in the fiscal year 2018, in FY19, the lending body will be provided a budget of Rs2,750 crore.
8.Operation Green: The goal of the scheme is to double the farmers’ income by end of the year 2022. With the budget allocation of Rs. 500 Cr, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced about the Operation Green in Union Budget 2018. This scheme will facilitate the farmers of the nation. This will be in line with the operation flood. To reduce the fluctuation in the pricing of Onion, Tomatoes and Potatoes the scheme has been launched.
9.Prime Minister Fellowship Scheme: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also announced the PM Fellowship Scheme during the budget. Under this, one thousand B.Tech students will be given the opportunity to do Ph.D. in IIT and IISc.
10.Expansion of Ujjwala Scheme: Modi Government has set a target to provide the number of free LPG connections to the poor families under the Ujjwala scheme to reach 8 crores.
11.Saubhagya Yojna: The government has targeted to increase the number of power connections in rural areas to 40 million households. This scheme is one of PM Modi's ambitious plans.
12.Expansion of UDAN Yojna: 56 airports and 31 helipads being used less than the capacity will be added in the initiative to connect common man with the ‘UDAN Yojna. Along with this, the announcement of the construction of 10 major prestigious destinations for the promotion of tourism was announced.
13. Expansion of PM Vaya Vandana Yojana: The Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana was launched on 4th May 2017. The scheme provides regular pension income to senior citizens (60 years or more). The budget 2018-19 proposed to open this scheme for investment till March 2020. Apart from extending the scheme’s investment duration, the investment limit is also increased to Rs15 lakh from 7.5 Lakh per person.
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