Kerala Demographic Challenge and the Way Forward

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#opinion Kerala is a state that is often considered one of the best places to live in India. It ranks high on multiple indices of the NITI Aayog and boasts impressive Human Development Indicators such as literacy rate, healthcare, education, and low corruption. This success is attributed to the contributions of visionary leaders, irrespective of political affiliation, as well as public participation in socio-politics, policymakers, subject experts, the erstwhile Travancore Kingdom, and many others. This collective effort has led to what is known as the Kerala Model of Development. The state is among the top ten in terms of both GDP and per capita income. Despite Kerala's significant progress in quality of life and human development parameters, there are other fronts where this success is lacking. Today, Kerala is in the news for negative reasons such as a financial crisis, decreased revenue, rising debt, high unemployment, brain drain, and other challenges. While some issues are ov
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Takeaways from Indian Financial Budget 2022

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On February 1st 2022, the Finance Minister of India, Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman presented the financial budget for the financial year 2021-2022. It was a well-sought-after budget this time as the world is recovering from the biggest pandemic of the century as well we had seen a terrible second wave as well as the upcoming state assembly elections. On 31st January, the minister had submitted the Economic Survey for the year 2021-2022. 




The entire budget was paperless and was readout out from a tablet PC. The theme was the Economic blueprint for the next 25 years— India at 75 to India at 100.

Major announcements from the Budget Speech 

  1. Fiscal Deficit target- 6.4%
  2. Error correction in Income Tax fillings to be allowed
  3. Tax deduction limit raised for State govt employees for NPS fund to be increased to 14%
  4. Digital Assets will be taxed 30% 
  5. SEZ Act to be replaced with new legislation for investment and support to companies
  6. The budget laid out a roadmap for Digitisation as a whole as for digital payments.
  7. National Tele Mental Health Program to be launched 
  8. Major push for Transport infrastructure called as Gatishakti with seven engines. 
  9. 5G to be deployed by this year
  10. A new EV swapping policy announced
  11. PLI scheme to create 60 lakh jobs
  12. Push for hospitality services post-pandemic
  13. Post-offices to be an area of focus for banking
  14. PM Awaaz Yojana housing policy to be extended 
  15. Expected 9.2% growth rate
Major Takeaways 
  • PLI scheme to create 60 lakh jobs
  • Ayush Ministry receives ₹3,000 Cr.
Railways
  1. Over 2000km of Railway network will be brought under Kavach System
  2. Over 400 new Vandebharat train services will be started. 
  3. Over 100 cargo terminals over 3 years. 
  4. Metro projects get ₹19,000 Cr.
Roadways
  1. 25,000 km expansion with ₹16,000 Cr funds. 
  2. ₹1500 Cr for NorthEast 
  3. Parvatmala Project 
  4. Ken Betwa project for ₹1,400 Cr 
  5. Energy as a Service business opportunity and EV swapping policy with interoperability. 
Digital Push 
  1. India's first digital currency- Digital Rupee will be released in next year. This will use Blockchain based technology. 
  2. E-billing system in Central Ministries. 
  3. Digital Education- One Class One TV. PM E Vidya Scheme. 
  4. DESH upskilling portal launched. 
  5. E-passports to have embedded chips technologies.
Technology 
  1. Domestic manufacturing of Solar Cells energy modules.
  2. Sovereign Green bonds to be issued
  3. Duty concessions for electronic components.
  4. Use of Kisan specific drones for farming
  5. Optic Fibre Cable rollout in every village by 2025 
  6. Ministry of Science and Technology receives ₹14,000 Cr
Criticisms 
There is widespread criticism mainly from the opposition that the budget is corporate friendly, anti-poor, anti-farmer, anti-middle class. Certain states were ignored and received nothing from the budget. 

Analysis 
Irrespective of your opinion regarding the budget, we can see that there is a massive push for infrastructure, development, transportation etc. Apart from that, another notable aspect is that it's a digital budget, with a lot of push for technology and digital initiatives. This is an important push for progressiveness and modernisation. There has been no change in tax slabs which is a really good consistency. We hope India will achieve good economic growth and this budget will pave for a better future. 

Credits- MoneyControl, DD News, The Indian Express, Bloomberg Quint.
Content Credits- Unnamalai (Check out their blog)

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