Chancellor of Karunya University, Coimbatore, Dr Paul Dhinakaran, has said that he believes the Finance Minister has laid out a very safe Budget this year operating with fiscal prudence & the ambit of clean India expanded. “He pursued the Budget theme of 'Transform, Energize and Clean India. The Budget was presented across 10 key distinct themes to foster growth. The Budget provides a lot of thrust on development of the Farm economy by raising the funding for the Rural and agriculture sector by 24%. The Budget talks about increasing the allocation for ' Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin' from Rs . 15,000 crore to Rs 23,000 crore with a target to complete 1 crore affordable homes by 2019. It also sets an ambitious target of May 1, 2018 for achieving 100% Rural Electrification,” added Dhinakaran.
The VC said that the Budget talks of providing high speed broadband connectivity on optical fibre in more than 1,50,000 gram panchayats by the end of the next fiscal. The Budget has sought to strengthen the Digital payments model to generate long- term benefits in terms of reduced corruption and greater formalisation of the economy.
The sanitation coverage in Rural India has increased to 60% and in order to improve this further the Budget has proposed incentives for ' open defecation' free villages. The Innovation fund for secondary education to be introduced in educationally backward districts will encourage universal access, improvement in the quality of education & skill development in Rural India.
“Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the fourth budget presented by his Government as an important step towards the overall development of the nation with focus on fulfilling the ' dreams ' of every section, including the poor , the farmer and the underprivileged. The Budget in more than one place emphasizes the need for accelerating growth through raising consumer demand and increasing investment,” he said.