Delegates from Esteemed Associations Analyse Budget 2022-23; Read Their Comments

Budget 2022: On February 1, 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the Modi 2.0 government's 4th budget. The Economic Survey, which stated that the government has fiscal space to do more to help the economy, which is expected to grow at a solid 8-8.5 percent in fiscal 2022-23, set the tone for the Budget presentation.

The focus of the Budget is now expected to be on speeding up India's recovery from the pandemic shock, as well as strengthening India's healthcare system to protect against future outbreaks. The government would continue to increase spending to boost the recovery and return India to a higher growth path.

As the Budget has already been announced, many citizens are pleased because their expectations have been realized, while others are disappointed because their expectations have not been met. To know what the experts feel about the budget, Krishi Jagran organized a live discussion today.p

Krishi Jagran conducted post-budget discussion on 1^st February 2022 from 3:00 PM onwards in the virtual mode in face of the Covid-19 third wave. In this session, we listened to the Agri experts, Scientists, and other delegates on their views and perspective of the highlights of the budget and how it will affect the Farmers' lives and Indian Agriculture.

Ram Kaundinya, Director General, Federation of Seed Industry of India, started his speech and said that the decision on Agri-tech was the highlight of the budget, as the Agri-tech fund, which the NABARD will create is a good move and it will help in bringing the Hi-tech services to the villages. Not only this, the emphasis on drones was also a great initiative. He believes that both of these decisions are the modern thing, which is done in the budget.

Dr. S P Sharma, Chief Economist PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry, first congratulated the Government and the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for providing a very pragmatic and promising Budget for FY2022-23 and said that the Agri & Food Sectors have sincerely focused during the last 4-5 years there was a great focus in the Agriculture Reforms and the Food Processing Sector as we have a great opportunity in the global market.

We have more than 1300 billion imports in the Global Market and our participation is between 40-50 billion dollars. So, we have to increase this trajectory with more & more reforms by the government.

The government is doing a lot in the infrastructure front, they have provided great support to the capital investment during the last 2-3 years to the develop the Agri-tech infrastructure for all the segments of the economy.  The Population dependency is still high, we have to address this problem so that the farmers' income can be enhanced & they are able to participate more in the road trajectory of the Indian economy.

The next speaker of the session was Dr. Kalyan Goswami, Director General, Agro Chem Federation of India. Goswami appreciated the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for presenting a sensible, balanced budget. He said that he believes that the Gati Shakti Plan would make world-class infrastructure. He thinks that there are overall four main features between the development of Agriculture & Villages and these are, Youth, Women, Farmers & SC/ST’s., this budget will benefit all four of them in a big way. He said that the finance minister has announced Rs 2.37 lakh crore to be the direct payment of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) value to the wheat and paddy farmers.

Pradeep Multani, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has congratulated Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Hon’ble Finance Minister, for presenting a pragmatic and promising budget for Aatmanirbhar Bharat. 

He said that it is highly encouraging that the Union Budget seeks to lay the foundation and give blueprint of economy over ‘Amrit Kal’ of next 25 years - from India at 75 to India at 100.

It is encouraging that the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme has helped 130 lakh MSMEs mitigate the worst impact of the pandemic. In this regard, extension of the ECLG Scheme up to March 2023 along with extension of guaranteed cover by another Rs 50,000 crore, bringing the total cover under scheme to Rs 5 lakh crore now, is highly appreciable and in line with PHD Chamber suggestion.

It is highly inspiring that a high-level panel will be set up for urban planning, wherein additional allocation of Rs 19,500 crore will be made for PLI in solar PV module manufacturing, a high-level panel will be set up for urban planning, modern building by-laws will be introduced, use of public transport in urban areas will be promoted and battery swapping policy to allow EV charging stations for automobiles will be framed, said Mr Pradeep Multani.

Dr. R. K Trivedi, Executive Director, National Seed Association of India, began his speech by welcoming the Budget and said that this is a step towards focusing on agriculture for reviving our economy. He also said that the finance minister has covered some really important points, in which he would want to focus particularly on the start-up in agriculture for the post-harvest technology & for value addition.

He thinks that this is a great step, as his seed industry is a part of post-harvest. He said that, in the future, there will be many start-ups in the Seed Sector. He concluded by congratulating the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for taking good steps for the country.