Union Budget 2018

Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley presented Union Budget 2018 in Parliament. Here we have tried to cover various schemes launched in Budget 2018 which can be useful for SBI/IBPS/RBI/UPSC upcoming exam.

Operation Green

With the aim to promote the production of tomato, onion and potatoes the government in the Budget 2018 has allocated Rs 500 crore for OPERATION GREEN on the lines of Operation Flood. The aim is to aid farmers and help control and limit erratic fluctuations in the prices of tomatoes, onions and potatoes. It further aims to promote farmer producers organisations, processing facilities, agri-logistics and professional management. The objective behind it is to double the income of farmers by the end of 2022 by ensuring farmers are given the right price for their produce.

National Bamboo Mission

Bamboo is “Green Gold” Restructured National Bamboo Mission with an outlay of Rs. 1,290 crore will be allocated under this scheme to help the development of bamboo production as an industry in the country. This will help the people of rural and tribal areas.

Eklavya School

With the commitment to provide best quality education to the tribal children in their own environment to realise this govt. has decided to establish Eklavya schools for scheduled caste and schedule tribe students by 2022 on the lines of Navodaya schools and will have special facilities for preserving local art and culture. They will be model residential schools set up in every Block having more than 50% ST population and atleast 20,000 tribal people. It will also provide training in sports and skill development.

Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) Scheme

RISE scheme aims to lend low-cost funds to government higher educational institutions. It will be launched with a total investment of Rs. 1,00,000 crore in the next four years. It will be financed via restructured higher education financing agency (HEFA), a non-banking financial company.

Prime Minister Fellowship Scheme

It is aimed at facilitating cutting-edge research by providing high fellowship amounts to 1000 B. Tech students to pursue PhD in IITs and IISc. Its purpose is to make to produce better research in India and make its institutions climb up in global rankings.

National Health Protection Scheme

A major initiative under Ayushman Bharat Programme is National Health Protection Scheme which will cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable, families. Under this scheme, aims is to provide insurance cover upto Rs 5 lakh to each family per year in secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. It will have 50 crore beneficiaries and will be world’s largest government-funded healthcare programme.

Gobar-Dhan Yojna

Gobar-Dhan Yojana (also known as Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resource Fund scheme) aims to improve lives of the villagers. Under it, solid waste of dung and fields will be changed into compost, biogas and bio-CNG.

Kisan Credit Card to Fishermen and Cattle owners

Kisan Credit Card was extended to fishermen and cattle owners. It will enable them to avail the easier loans. It will help people associated with milk production business in rural areas by providing financial assistance and also to fisheries.

Affordable Housing Fund (AHF)

Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) will be created under National Housing Bank (NHB). It will be funded from priority sector lending shortfall and fully serviced bonds authorised by Central Government.

Kusum Solar Agricultural Pumps Scheme

The central government has announced Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan. Kusum Scheme for farmers.Govt. will provide subsidy on setting up of solar power plants on their barren land. Accordingly, Kusum Scheme will solarize agricultural pump sets to double the income of farmers by 2022. Central Govt. has allocated Rs. 48,000 crore in Union Budget 2018-19for upcoming 5 years for successful implementation of this scheme.

A special scheme will be implemented to support the efforts of the government of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi to address air pollution which has been the serious cause of concern in Delhi-NCR.