FM focuses on MSMEs, road infra, e-com hubs

To achieve the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’ 2047, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her seventh consecutive Budget in the Lok Sabha today for the financial year 2024-25. It is the first full budget by the BJP-led NDA government since it was re-elected in June. The Finance Minister’s allocation of ₹26,000 crore for highway development in Bihar, including the construction of a two-lane bridge over River Ganga and development of highways such as Patna-Purnea Expressway and Buxar-Bhagalpur Expressway, will benefit highway construction sector. Investment-ready plug-and-play industrial parks are to be developed in or near 100 cities. Giving the much-needed boost to MSMEs, Sitharaman said the limit for MUDRA loans for MSMEs has been increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh for those who have availed the loans before and repaid. Focusing on large-scale perishable clusters near ports and airports for full consumption, she said emphasis will be laid on pharmaceutical R&D and production. e-commerce export hubs will be set up in PPP mode to promote Indian goods globally and to facilitate cross-border trade. Focus on e-commerce hubs will help the D2C ecosystem, including small vendors and aggregators, to bring in efficiency in their operations and improve accessibility to markets, including exports. Seafood export touched all-time high of over Rs 60,000 crore, the Finance Minister said, adding that steps will be taken to adopt technology for digitisation of businesses.