Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, today's budget will emphasize rural development

Mumbai: Announcing schemes to strengthen rural employment and rural sentiment in the interim budget for the next financial year, which will be presented tomorrow before the Lok Sabha elections in the current year, is becoming very important for Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

As a large proportion of the country's population is engaged in agriculture-related activities, it is expected that rural schemes will be emphasized in the budget.

With the Lok Sabha elections in mind, Make in India, Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes and fertilizer subsidies are expected to be the highlights of the budget.

As for the rural labor market, underemployment and limited opportunities for skill development have continued to be a challenge, while an overabundance of nature-based agricultural work has exacerbated the situation.

It remains to be seen how the Finance Minister proposes to address the picture of a large number of rural workers spending several days of the year without work due to uncertainty in the agriculture sector, an analyst said.

Inadequate infrastructure in rural areas such as roads, power supply and healthcare needs to be improved. The analyst added that a large number of the rural population is still deprived of the benefits of modern technology.

Some support for rural welfare schemes like direct cash transfer and social safety net are expected to be announced in the budget.

The finance minister will ensure that the budget does not disappoint rural voters when the agriculture sector is currently underperforming due to a weak monsoon in 2023.