Allocation of budget on Agriculture, Defence, Education over the years.

Introduction

‘The Budget’ ; introduced In India on April 7, 1860, by James English, is an integral part of India’s economy. A budget assists in creating financial stability as it is a compilation of estimated of revenues/expenditures over a specified period of time. It allows one to improve cashflow and save for any major expenses.

In the following project, I will discuss the budget allocations for three such sectors and also analyse how they changed over the time.

Agriculture

Agriculture is one of the most vital sectors of the Indian economy, it employs more than 41.2% of the working age labour force and contributes to over 18% of India’s GDP. This goes to show how severely is agriculture sector struggling in India. The average annual income of a farmer is 1,22,000 Rs out of which over 72,000 Rs are used up just to pay their debts. India being an agrarian economy has an underdeveloped agriculture sector and this has come to the government’s notice. The following graph shows the change in the budget allocation for agriculture in Indian from 2010-2020. Spending on agriculture has significantly increased since 2015. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Narendra Modi spent a total of approximately Rs 57,600 crores on agriculture in 2018–19. A detailed examination of previous agriculture budgets will indicate that the biggest increment was seen in 2016–17, when expenditure on agriculture saw a staggering 79% increase. - problem faced by agriculture

Farmers have always been the back-bone of our country but they nevertheless face multiple challenges in their quest for daily survival. Problems such as small land holdings, lack of seeds, fertilisers, irrigation facilities etc make it extremely difficult for them to come up with substantial produce to sustain themselves. The government, under the ‘Empowering Farmers For A Prosperous India’ scheme has launched many yojanas such as the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana which aims to provide a boost to productivity by providing irrigation facilities and also promote organic farming. Due to unseasonal rains in then past few years, the scheme entitles a farmer to avail more than 33% subsidy in case of damaged crops. Gram Jyoti Yojana will provide uninterrupted electricity supply by separation of feeders. This will not only boost production, but will also have a huge impact on the overall lives of the farmers, including cottage industries, education, etc. The NDA is also securing farmer’s long term interest by increasing the Farm Credit to 8.5 Lakh Crores ensuring convenient access to loans at concessional rates.

Defence

The defence industry of India is strategically one of the most important sectors in India. It has the worlds second largest military force with over 1.4 million active personnel and has the largest number of voluntary participation in the army. Is is currently allocated an amount equivalent two 2.1% of India’s total GDP. Nonetheless the industry faces many pressing issues. Decision-making on issues of national security and defence procurement has been slow and inefficient due to hierarchical complexities, resulting in the slow growth of defence modernisation. In addition, there is a lack of input from the Armed Forces in the decision-making on defence and national security strategy

The defence industry, with the help of the government is slowly working towards modernisation of the army and self reliance. The graph shows how the defence budget for India’s army has changed over the years. There has been an average growth rate of 9% every year. With the increasing budget, the army is being equipped with modern day weapons such as diesel attack submarines, stealth combat jets and much more. To help the defence industry become self reliant, the government has placed import embargo on defence equipment, the capital procurement budget has been increased to 52,000 crores and the defence acquisition procedure has increased the indigenous content requirement in all categories of defence procurement.

Education

With providing employment to over 14 crore people, education takes place in the top 5 employment providers in India. Not only it promotes individual freedom, empowerment and yields important development benefits, it also promotes a democracy that comprises of a civilised and a well-mannered society. Education aids in upliftment of economically underprivileged groups and results in the creation of numerous jobs and employment opportunities. An investment of over 4% percent of India’s GDP is made in the education sector with the aim of solving certain problems such as mass illiteracy, lack of funds, expensive higher education and brain drain which results in migration of talented individuals who do not get a job opportunity in India.

The graph above denotes how the percentage of GDP invested in education changed over the years. The increased investment can be noticed to bring many positive changes in the education sector. Many schemes has been introduced for providing quality education in underdeveloped areas in elementary, secondary and higher education. In order to help with the problem of brain drain, rural development is being given a lot of importance. The number of government schools can be seen rising and the more and more schools are being provided with funds for development of infrastructure. The government is also offering the top 500 students a scholarship in order to pursue higher studies. Even after numerous reforms, India’s education system is sagging and has a long way to go before it can be compared to that of other HEDC’s.