Sir — This refers to the editorial, “For A Healthy India” (February 2). This Budget had to be presented against a background of rising expectations and as expected, every academic, economist, opinion master worth his/her salt has labelled
the Union Budget as an election-year Budget.
Any Budget is no cure-all wonder drug and the Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is a calculated step aimed at delivering a bouquet of benefits to maximum number of beneficiaries.
There is much to applaud in the last full Budget, especially because it is in tune with the several structural changes made by the Government in the past three years.
Articulating his vision for the general election quite clearly, the Government has recognised the existence of rural distress, amplified by a string of farmer protests and suicides last year provoked by falling commodity prices and increasing debt.
Possibly, the most significant steps taken are the plan to have 150,000 health centres at an investment of Rs 1,200 crore and the provision of an annual health insurance cover of five lakh rupees per family to 100 million of India’s poorest and most vulnerable families. These are significant initiatives, and the Government has reason to pat itself on the back for the transformation it is seeking to attempt in healthcare. The only misgiving: No respite for the middle class salaried individual paying income tax through the nose.