Farmers were the big winners in Thursday’s budget announcement.
Apart from raising the minimum support price for all crops, the government proposed raising credit for the agricultural sector to 11 trillion rupees ($172.3 billion) for the upcoming fiscal year.
The government has planned to set up a Rs. 20 billion fund to develop, and upgrade, agricultural market infrastructure. Another Rs. 5 billion would be allocated to promote farmer producer organizations, agriculture logistics, processing facilities and professional management.
India also planned to loosen restrictions on the export of agricultural commodities to realize a market potential as high as $100 billion.
Measures to improve the livelihood of India’s rural, low-income groups were also announced on Thursday. Those include plans to provide free electricity and cooking gas to low-income households and build more toilets to promote sanitation and hygiene.
Jaitley said the government aimed to spend about Rs.14.34 trillion for the “creation of livelihood and infrastructure in rural areas.”
