FM borrows some Cong ideas, misses out on Modi Guarantees

The Modi government after 10 years of being in power ought to have started a serious dialogue on this front, rather than merely announcing budgetary allocations

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a series of announcements in her Budget 2024 speech benefiting few sections and some States but failed to adhere to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guarantee of Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas.

Strikingly though, the FM began her speech by focusing on the four key sections - Poor, Women, Youth and the Farmer – but as she left several yawning gaps as far as the execution is concerned.

Despite the warnings from the Economic Survey that half of India’s graduates being churned out by our colleges and universities are unfit for any job, the Budget miserably fails to address the academia-industry gap. The Modi government after 10 years of being in power ought to have started a serious dialogue on this front, rather than merely announcing budgetary allocations.

One gets the impression that the government is not making any serious efforts to handle the time bomb called unemployment.

Look at the announcements made by the FM. She announced the revision of the Model Skill Loan Scheme to facilitate loans up to

`7.5 lakh with a guarantee from a government promoted Fund, to help 25,000 students every year. She came out with another loan scheme of upto `10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions. Here, the government talks of only loans and not any skill schemes at college level.

As regards poverty is concerned, we get to hear the same old talk of massive investments in infrastructure and PM Awas Yojana, but one does not get to know the kind of employment generation these projects have generated so far. The infrastructure and teal estate development tend to create temporary jobs among the poor. The hundreds of daily wage labour who wait eagerly at ‘nakas’ constantly remind us that their problem continues to be unresolved.

The government keeps talking of data and one wonders as to how it can plan for the real economic development without the real data in hand. The government has not conducted any census so far and the BJP hates caste census as proposed by Rahul Gandhi. Caste or no caste, why is the Mo-Sha duo apprehensive of a census to gauge the levels of progress or the lack of it, unemployment, education, health, drinking water, housing, pollution, public transport, infrastructure and so on? Unless the planners know the extent and seriousness of a problem, how can they be expected to find solutions by remaining confined to their north or south block office?

The public sector has been the largest employer. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi speaks of 30 lakh vacancies in PSUs and government departments. The government does not talk of filling these vacancies but talks of three schemes for ‘Employment Linked Incentive’. These will be based on enrolment in the EPFO, and focus on recognition of first-time employees, and support to employees and employers. This is not as easy and simple as it appears to be. An employer first of all has to engage a youth for it and that has to be reflected in EPFO record.

Under the Prime Minister’s package, the FM announced internship opportunities in 500 top companies to 1 crore youth in 5 years. An internship allowance of Rs 5,000 per month along with a one-time assistance of Rs 6,000 will be provided to the youth. Companies will be expected to bear the training cost and 10 per cent of the internship cost from their CSR funds. This was apparently in response to Rahul Gandhi’s thaka-tak-thaka-tak internship for the unemployed youth. Congress Jairam Ramesh was quick to comment: “The Finance Minister has taken a leaf out of the INC's Nyay Patra 2024, with its internship program clearly modelled on the INC's proposed Apprenticeship Programme that was called Pehli Naukri Pakki. However, in their trademark style, the scheme has been designed to grab headlines, with arbitrary targets (1 crore internships) rather than a programmatic guarantee for all diploma holders and graduates, like the Indian National Congress had envisioned”.

Nirmala says the Government will also facilitate higher participation of women in the workforce through setting up of working women hostels in collaboration with industry, and establishing creches. This can happen after women get jobs. But how does the Minister facilitate women to get jobs? Where is the plan to upskill women?

The official announcement on the Budget begins by saying that despite global economy remaining under the grip of policy uncertainties, India’s economic growth continues to be the shining exception and will remain so in the years ahead.

She announced the Prime Minister’s package of 5 schemes and initiatives to facilitate employment, skilling and other opportunities for 4.1 crore youth over a 5-year period with a central outlay of `2 lakh crore. This year, `1.48 lakh crore has been allocated for education, employment and skilling.

The Opposition dubbed the budget as an exercise to save the NDA government and to mollify the two key allies – Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh and Nitish Kumar of Bihar both of whom have been expecting special State status. Andhra got Rs 15,000 crore promise for developing its capital city Amaravati and unspecified commitment for Polavaram irrigation project.

For Irrigation and Flood Mitigation in Bihar, through the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme and other sources, government will provide financial support for projects with estimated cost of `11,500 crore such as the Kosi-Mechi intra-state link and 20 other ongoing and new schemes including barrages, river pollution abatement and irrigation projects. Government will also provide assistance to Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim for flood management, landslides and related projects.

Though the FM announced the government’s commitment to implement the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, it did not mention anything for Telangana.

Government will formulate a plan, Purvodaya, for the all-round development of the eastern region of the country covering Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. This will cover human resource development, infrastructure, and generation of economic opportunities to make the region an engine to attain Viksit Bharat.

But the poll bound States of Haryana and Maharashtra were left to suck their thumbs and they do not figure in the Viksit Bharat plan. So is the fate of Uttar Pradesh.

Remember, the PM has made a string of announcements of packages for various states before the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha poll came into force. Do these packages require budgetary allocations? But Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget is silent on them.

The BJP leadership might hate Nehru, but the country’s first PM’s favourite lines penned by Robert Frost are much relevant for the present dispensation as well:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

One hopes Team Modi remembers that it has many promises to keep, including Sab Ka Saath Sab Ka Vikas, and not of a few favourites.

(The author is a Mumbai-based columnist and independent media veteran, running websites and a YouTube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging.)