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(GIST OF KURUKSHETRA) Budget 2024-25: Strengthening Rural Economy

(SEPTEMBER-2024)

Budget 2024-25: Strengthening Rural Economy

Context:

The Economic Survey 2023-24, tabled in the parliament a day prior to the Union Budget 2024-25 announcements, highlighted the growing economic prowess of the country and analysed how the economy has bounced back and broadly caught up with pre-COVID growth trends. It emphasised on the need to create approximately 7.85 million jobs in non-farm sectors of the economy besides improving agri-entrepreneurial system to ensure value addition to primary produces and to boost farmers’ income.

Key highlights:

The Survey also expressed its concern on the low productivity levels, the impact of climate change, fragmented land holdings and inadequate marketing infrastructure which may affect agriculture performance and enhance stress levels of the country’s monsoon-dependent agro-economy.
While the Survey advocated improved access to high-quality inputs and better extension services, focussed attention to enhance investment and productivity in the crop, livestock, animal husbandry and fisheries, rightful targeting of power and fertiliser subsidies and rising farm produce and productivity, the citizens’ pre-budget expectations ranged from improvement in income, wealth, employment and infrastructure to ensuring an overall enabling business environment.
In this backdrop, this article attempts to explain the in-built policy direction and socio-economic intent of the Government by discussing a few agriculture and rural development related focus areas as prioritized in the Budget 24-25.

Allocation Trend for Rural Livelihoods & Infrastructure

The Budget called for a productive and resilient agriculture. It outlined the need for a quick agriculture-led rural economic growth by allocating adequate resources to important livelihood and rural infrastructure programmes.
The increase in resource allocations within agriculture and rural development aimed at stimulating economic growth with job creation, income and wealth generation and enhancement of overall consumption demand in rural India.

Rural Development

The low work participation rates in the rural areas are due to the non-availability of adequate employment opportunities and the necessary investment needed for creation of job avenues in rural sectors. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has immense potential to create diverse green job opportunities at the grass-root level and to remove demand side rigidities from the rural scenario. The Budget 2024-25 continued to underscore the importance of MGNREGA and National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) – the existing two wage and self-employment programmes towards building quality and productive community assets and enterprises in a rural environment.
National Rural Livelihood Mission has two important self-employment schematic interventions viz. Deendayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushal Yojana (DDU-GKY) and Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM). DAY-NRLM seeks to reach out to all rural poor women, estimated at 10.0 crores. The core financial support under the programme is the Revolving Fund (RF) and Community Investment Fund (CIF) provided to Self Help Group (SHGs) and their Federations to facilitate their livelihood activities.
Further, the rural enterprises scheduled to be established under DAY-NRLM during 2024-25 will not only prove to be the real growth engines of over 5.5 lakh villages, but would also help in

(a) ensuring financial inclusion of SHGs

(b) increasing household income over the baseline and

Conclusion

The Budget announcement regarding implementation of revised National Cooperation Policy, if put into practice, would facilitate creating model cooperative villages by fulfilling the basic tenets of economic self-reliance. While this is a novel and praiseworthy step of the Government, timely and appropriate coordination with multiple line Ministries/ Departments/Cooperative facilitating agencies and State Governments is a must to ensure the long-cherished goal of Viksit Bharat through hastening growth processes of rural employment, income and wealth.