The much-awaited fiscal announcement is done. On Tuesday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Union Budget 2024-25 in Lok Sabha. This was FM Sitharaman’s 7th Union Budget.
In February 2024, FM Sitharaman had presented the Interim Budget 2024-25 which focused on housing, green energy, trains, tourism, healthcare, technology, and aviation. The budget prioritized women's welfare and empowerment as well.
The newly announced Budget focuses on important topics such as women's empowerment, infrastructure, railways, defense, communications, healthcare, and vehicles among various others. The Union budget laid emphasis on improving agriculture, upskilling youth, strengthening MSMEs & startups and empowering working women.
Let’s take a look at some of the key announcements made in the Union Budget speech 2024 that will impact women, entrepreneurs and youth of India.
Women Empowerment
FM Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about the government’s continued commitment to gender equality and empowering women in the Indian workforce. Some of the most notable announcements for women was the allocation of over ₹3 trillion in the Union Budget, for the schemes that will benefit women and girls in India.
The government will forge partnerships with the industry in order to organise skilling programmes that are specifically for women and will also promote women self-help group (SHG) enterprises gain increased market access.
Working women will also benefit from the establishment of working women hostels and creches for working mothers, thus promoting women’s participation in the workforce.
MSMEs
In order to boost the growth of Indian MSME sector, FM Sitharaman announced the introduction of a credit guarantee scheme. This scheme will assist businessowners in getting term loans, thus, alleviating credit risks for small and medium enterprises.
The scheme will have a self-financing guarantee fund which will give coverage of up to Rs 100 crore per applicant. This will allow businessowners to get larger loan amounts and also facilitate entrepreneurial growth.
Youth Employment & Skill Development
FM Sitharaman announced an all-inclusive Prime Minister’s package of Rs 2 lakh crore over five years. The package will focus on helping generate employment, foster skill development, and create employment opportunities for 4.1 crore Indian youth.
Rs 1.48 lakh crore has been reserved in the current fiscal year to empower Indian youth through education and skill development programs.
The Indian government will also launch a internship opportunities scheme encompassing close to one crore youth in major Indian companies. Youth will receive financial support through a monthly stipend and one-time assistance. The scheme will improve youth’s employability and inculcate in them practical skills acquisition.
“The government will launch a scheme to provide internship opportunities to one crore youth in 500 top companies with Rs 5,000 per month as internship allowance and one-time assistance of Rs 6,000,” said the FM.
FM Sitharaman also spoke about the launch of the National Cooperation Policy which will focus on all-round development of students. The policy has also pledged financial assistance for higher education loans up to Rs 10 lakh in domestic institutions.
