Talk on the Union Budget for Economics students

A session on the Union Budget 2023 was organised by Birla Vidya Niketan on 3 February 2023 6 students of class XI ( Haritmaa Sharma, Simran Kaur, Pranya Sadh, Bharati Gupta, Veganil Minocha and Vansh) participated in the session. They were accompanied by their teacher, Ms Sangita Verma.

Resource person, Mr Sanjay Beswal initiated the talk by explaining the numbers of the budget pertaining to the Indian economy and shared prudent investment tips with the students. Ms Anushree, former student of the host school carried forward Mr. Beswals talk. She is involved in matters of Foreign Trade Policy, Foreign Investments & Project Development matters for more than 15 years.

Highlights of the budget, as discussed in the talk, are as follows:

• - The Indian economy has increased in size from being the 10th to the 5th largest in the world in the past nine years.
• - 7,400 billion digital payments of 126 lakh billion rupees were exchanged in 2022 via UPI.
• - Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, 11.7 crore domestic toilets have been built.
• - 9.6 crore LPG connections have been provided under the Ujjwala Yojna.
• - 102 crore people have received COVID vaccines.
• - Under the "PM Kisan Samman Neeti," cash transfers of 2.2 lakh crore have been made to more than 11.4 crore Indian farmers.
• - The "Saptarishi" budget's seven priorities are: unleashing potential, green growth, young power, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, and financial sector.
• - The current 157 medical colleges will be co-located with 157 new nursing institutions. Thus, new employment opportunities will arise.
• - Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0, to be launched to teach skills to lakhs of youth in the next three years. It will cover 'new age' courses for industries like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills.
• - The targeted fiscal deficit is estimated to lie below 4.5% by 2025-26.
• - Agriculture Accelerator Fund to be set-up to encourage agri-startups by young entrepreneurs in rural areas.
• - Following an initiative by India, the United Nations has designated 2023 as the "International Year of the Millet."
• - A national digital library for kids and teens will be established to make high quality books accessible to readers of all ages and backgrounds, in many languages, genres, and for diverse reading levels.
• - To enable demand-based formal skilling, there will be set up, a connect with employers, including MSMEs and an access to entrepreneurship programmes will be facilitated. A unified Skill India Digital portal will be developed.
• - To commemorate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, a one-time small savings scheme Mahila Samman Savings Certificate has been launched. This will offer a deposit facility up to Rs 2 lakh in the namez of women or girls for a tenure of 2 years (up to March 2025) at a fixed interest rate of 7.5 per cent with a partial withdrawal option.
• - The rebate limit of personal income tax has been increased to Rs. 7 lakh from the current Rs. 5 lakh, in the new tax regime. Thus, people in the new tax regime, with the income up to Rs. 7 lakhs do not pay any tax.

In a nutshell, the young participants had a wide exposure and learning experience.