As part of the "Investment as a third engine" initiative headlined by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her eighth consecutive Union Budget on Saturday, the union minister announced a renewed push for infrastructure projects in public-private partnership mode.
For this, each infrastructure ministry is expected to come up with a three-year pipeline of projects implemented in PPP mode. States would also have access to the India Infrastructure Development Fund.
An outlay of Rs 1.5 lakh crore is proposed for the 50-year interest-free loan for capex and incentives for reforms, informed the finance minister.
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Sitharaman also introduced a second asset monetisation plan for the country from 2015 to 2030, set to follow the first plan announced in 2021. The second asset monetisation plan is expected to plough back Rs 10 lakh crore in new projects, the finance minister added.
"Regulatory and fiscal measures will be fine-tuned to support the plan," she said.
When the finance minister began her statements into investments, it was intriguing to note how she introduced it—investing in people, investing in economy, and investing in innovation.
The push for PPP infrastructure projects was housed under "investing in the economy" along with the new asset monetisation plan, and it came at the heels of Sitharaman announcing increased investment in people and innovation.
Union Budget 2025: investing in urban people
The focus, this Budget, was on the urban poor and vulnerable groups, as Sithraman mused to introduced a scheme for the upliftment of urban workers.
The finance minister moved to revamp the Prime Minister Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme, to enhance loans from banks and to provide UPI-linked credit cards with Rs 30,000 limit.
Apart from street vendors, online-platform workers—a group that has grown in strength logarithmically in the past two years on th onset of e-commerce and quick commerce boom, look to benefit from the latest Budget.
Sitharaman announced a social security scheme for online platform workers. This also included identity cards and registration in the e-Shram portal, which would facilitate servicing at least 1 crore such workers under the PM Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).
Union Budget 2025: investing in rural people and education
Rural welfare was another major point covered by the finance minister during her Budget speech as she outlined the "Investment as a third engine" initiative.
India’s integrated nutrition support programme, the Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 aids more than 8 crore children, 1 crore pregnant and lactating mothers all over the country, 20 lakh adolescent girls in aspirational districts and the Northeast region, according to the finance minister. "The cost norms for these nutritional support [initiatives] will be enhanced appropriately," announced Sitharaman.
Moving to education in rural areas, the Budget proposed the setting up of 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labsin government schools in the next five years, with an aim "to foster scientific temper among young minds."
The finance minister also announced an ambitious move to expand the BharatNet project to provide broadband connectivity to all government secondary schools and primary health centres in rural areas.
She also proposed the Bharatiya Bhasha Pustak Scheme in a bid to provide digital versions of books in vernacular languages for schools and for higher education.