Having presented its first full year Union Budget for 2015-16, the NDA Government in a first of its kind move, also tabled in Parliament, a document which laid down in detail the status of various initiatives announced by the Centre during its first budget in July 2014 for FY15.
The document titled 'Implementation of Budget Announcements 2014-15', clearly gives out details of all the major initiatives announced by the Narendra Modi Government like 'Digital India', 'Good Governance', setting up of Smart Cities, reforms in the coal and power sectors, banking as well as the insurance sectors. It also highlights the various stages of implementation of these initiatives.
A kind of a progress report of the Government's plans in the past nine months, the document clearly stated that the ambitious 'Digital India', which envisages broad band connectivity at village level and improved access to basic services through IT-enabled platforms, has been partially completed. Under this, the first meeting of the Apex Committee on Digital India programme was held in November 2014 and necessary follow-up actions are being undertaken.
Similarly on the 'Good Governance' initiative, for which the July, 2014 Budget had allocated Rs 100 crore, the document stated that all concerned ministries have been asked to formulate suitable project proposals for development of new applications and for replication of successful e-Governance applications in various domains. It informed that eight projects have already been recommended for approval with appropriate revisions.
In the power sector, Arun Jaitley in his first budget in July last year, had proposed to allocate Rs 100 crore as initial sum for a scheme titled 'Ultra Modern Super Critical Coal Based Thermal Power Technology' to promote cleaner and efficient thermal power.
Since then, the proposal of R&D project for development of Advanced Ultra Super-Critical Technology for Thermal Power Plants on a mission mode, has been approved by the Government, the document said.
BHEl has been asked to start the important project activities related to the R&D project. Once the Cabinet approval is granted, Rs 100 crore will be released to BHEl.
The NDA Government's first budget had also called for fast tracking production and exploitation of coal bed methane (CBM) reserves. For this it was decided to use modern technology for reviving old wells and maximise production from such fields.
To ensure this, a Cabinet note seeking to amend the Coal Bed Methane Policy is under preparation. This will seek to allow exploration of CBM from areas under coal mining lease allotted to different companies both public as well as private.