Union Budget 2022: Resilient and Equitable Transformation in the Amrit Kaal

The Union Budget 2022 began with the finance minister acknowledging the lives affected by the grave impacts of the pandemic and the need to rebound, recover, and build a resilient India. We are moving on from a difficult year, but the strength and compassion our country showed gives us hope for a positive recovery.

(Photo: The Quint)

The Union Budget 2022 began with the finance minister acknowledging the lives affected by the grave impacts of the pandemic and the need to rebound, recover, and build a resilient India. We are moving on from a difficult year, but the strength and compassion our country showed gives us hope for a positive recovery.

The pandemic witnessed the combined efforts of the government, private sector, and civil society for rapid health response, to prevent large scale hunger and deprivation. This collaborative approach is going to be the new norm. Under a futuristic blueprint for PM GatiShakti in the Amrit Kaal leading to 100 years of India’s independence, inclusive development for women, youth, and farmers is a transformative move.

The 2022 Union Budget holds the key to India’s resurgence and economic revival. The finance minister estimated India’s economic growth to be 9.2 percent, highest among all large economies.

With significant interest and effort to restore economic growth to pre-pandemic levels, it embraces a multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder, integrated and systemic approach that balances economic growth and sustainable development.

What is significant is the government’s renewed emphasis on rural economic development, sustainable growth in tier-2 and 3 cities, and resilient urban development with the commitment to provide respectable economic opportunities for women and the youth. The redesigning of the current urban development model was something that we in the social/development sectors had been propagating.

Yield To the Young

Alleviating India’s poor is an intricate task, engrained with other societal challenges such as lack of education, job losses, lack of jobs, unskilled workers, and access to service jobs. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy states that India has over 53 million unemployed people as of December 2021. Three-quarters of India's workforce is self-employed and casual, with no social security benefits – creating opportunities of employment can safeguard their rights and provide them with a steady source of income.

The interlinking of Udyam for MSME registrations, eShram for unorganised workers, National Career Services for MSME employment, and Aatamanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping for skilled workforce will help in providing skilled workers in the unorganised sector with better job opportunities.

The launch of Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood's Stack e-portal and focus on online training for India’s informal workforce, can lead to greater innovation and up-skilling. With the focus on skilling and productivity linked incentive schemes, the country can create over 60 lakh jobs in 14 sectors.

Win With Women

India's female labour participation rate fell to 16.1 percent during the July – September 2020 quarter and changed how women work. Getting women back into the workforce is a challenge.

The blueprint for Amrit Kaal, as outlined by the government, is looking to keep women at the heart of it. The comprehensive revamp of schemes benefitting women especially, Mission Shakti (promotion of women self-help groups) and Mission Vatsalya (relief scheme for COVID widows) is welcome.

Saksham Anganwadi (empowering Anganwadi workers with facilities) and Poshan 2.0 (nutritious food for children, pregnant and lactating mothers) can help revamp women and children’s health, as women were the worst impacted physically and mentally by the pandemic.

Invest in Social Impact Innovation

Encouraging social innovation through startups will not just foster an inquisitive and self-reliant India, but also generate employment for the large unemployed population. The unlocking of India’s entrepreneurship potential has the utmost power to change how India innovates, grows, and creates employment opportunities.

Extending tax benefits for rising startups is a welcoming move to encourage growth and innovation. The Union Budget values the rise in startups by incorporating innovation in drones, agriculture, and defense R&D.

Increasing policies and budgets for startups in India has the potential to drive innovation and entrepreneurial temper.

Digitise to Democratise

India is treading the path of digitizing education, banking, healthcare, and agriculture with the introduction of digital universities, launching 75 Digital Banking Units, and National Digital Health Ecosystem. The need for a transformative approach that bridges the divide between our farmers and access to technology, is of paramount importance in a majorly agrarian economy like ours.

The Budget recognises public-private partnerships and values private investment with public capital to drive transformative social change. The plan to deliver digital and hi-tech services to farmers with involvement of public sector research and extension institutions, along with private agri-tech players, and stakeholders of agri-value chain, a scheme in PPP mode is something to watch out for.

While the world is considering this as a decade of action towards Sustainable Development Goals 2030, the Budget sees the remaining 25 years of India@100 as ‘Amrit Kaal’. A futuristic blueprint for the Amrit Kaal led by PM GatiShakti is a recognition of the government’s vision for an inclusive and transformational India. The coming together of the government, private sector, and civil society will truly enable our country to achieve this, without leaving vulnerable communities or sections of society behind.

(Atul Satija is the CEO of GiveIndia and The/Nudge Foundation, and Sudha Srinivasan is the CEO of The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)