Dharmendra Pradhan hails Budget 2024-25 as pivotal milestone on India's path to becoming a developed nation by 2047

Dharmendra Pradhan hailed the 2024-25 Budget as a pivotal milestone on India's path to becoming a developed nation by 2047.

Expressing his gratitude to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman for their relentless focus and concrete measures for the well-being and empowerment of "Garib, Mahila, Yuva and Annadata", he mentioned that the Budget for Viksit Bharat is truly a people-oriented, growth-inducing, inclusive, and progressive budget.

He said that by prioritizing education, skilling, employment generation, research, and innovation like never before, the Budget for Viksit Bharat paves the way for strengthening Bharat’s credentials as the talent basket, skill hub, and solution provider for the world.

He mentioned that this budget would further facilitate ease of living, boost socio-economic conditions, fuel green growth, strengthen social justice, improve the business climate, realize dreams, bring prosperity to every home, and accelerate the groundwork to achieve the next phase of economic growth.

He emphasized that empowering the youth and fulfilling their dreams is at the heart of the government. The Budget for Viksit Bharat continues the Government's trend of keeping the youth’s aspirations at the centre of policy-making, he added.

Shri Pradhan also highlighted out the ₹1.48 lakh crore allocation to education, employment, and skilling. He elaborated on the Prime Minister’s Package, which includes:

- Strengthening the skilling and apprenticeship ecosystem;

- Skill development and internship opportunities for 1 crore youth by India’s top companies;

- Providing employment-linked incentives to first-time employees across sectors;

- Providing incentives to both employees and employers for EPFO contributions; and

- Providing Model Skill Loans up to ₹7.5 lakh to 25,000 students annually and education loans up to ₹10 lakh for pursuing education in domestic HEIs to 1 lakh students every year with an annual interest subvention of 3%.

He noted that these are comprehensive and concrete measures by Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman that will be a win-win for all stakeholders—students, academia, and industry. This is going to fulfil the aspirations of our youth, empower people with more livelihood opportunities, increase accessibility to quality education and skills, and create over 4.1 crore new jobs in the next five years.