Budget 2025: Everything about 4 engines FM Sitharaman says crucial in Viksit Bharat journey

While presenting the Union Budget 2025, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the budget promises to continue government’s efforts to accelerate growth, secure inclusive development, invigorate private sector investments, uplift household sentiments, and enhance spending power of India’s rising middle class. 

The Budget proposes development measures focusing on poor (Garib), Youth, farmer (Annadata) and women (Nari). The Budget aims to initiate transformative reforms in Taxation, Power Sector, Urban Development, Mining, Financial Sector, and Regulatory Reforms to augment India’s growth potential and global competitiveness.

Union Budget highlights that Agriculture, MSME, Investment, and Exports are engines in the journey to Viksit Bharat using reforms as fuel, guided by the spirit of inclusivity, said Sitharaman in her Budget speech.

1st Engine: Agriculture

A comprehensive multi-sectoral ‘Rural Prosperity and Resilience’ programme will be launched in partnership with states to address underemployment in agriculture through skilling, investment, technology, and invigorating the rural economy. The goal is to generate ample opportunities in rural areas, with focus on rural women, young farmers, rural youth, marginal and small farmers, and landless families.

Budget announced ‘Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana’ in partnership with states covering 100 districts to increase productivity, adopt crop diversification, augment post-harvest storage, improve irrigation facilities, and facilitate availability of long-term and short-term credit.

Key Highlights

Government will launch a 6-year “Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses” with special focus on Tur, Urad and Masoor. Central agencies (NAFED and NCCF) will be ready to procure these 3 pulses, as much as offered during the next 4 years from farmers.

The Budget has outlined measures to Comprehensive Programme for Vegetables and Fruits, National Mission on High Yielding Seeds, and a five year Mission for Cotton Productivity amongst other measures to promote agriculture and allied activities in a major way.

Increase in loan limits from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for loans taken through Kisan Credit Cards under modified interest subvention scheme.

2nd Engine: MSMEs

To help MSMEs achieve higher efficiencies of scale, technological upgradation and better access to capital, the investment and turnover limits for classification of all MSMEs enhanced to 2.5 and 2 times, respectively. 

The Finance Minister also announced the launch of a new scheme for 5 lakh women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes first-time entrepreneurs. This will provide term loans up to Rs. 2 crore during the next 5 years.

Sitharaman announced that the government will also implement a scheme to make India a global hub for toys representing the 'Made in India' brand.

3rd Engine: Investment

Defining Investment as the third engine of growth, the Union Minister prioritized investment in people, economy and innovation. 

Under the investment in people, Union Finance Minister announced that 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs will be set up in Government schools in next 5 years.

A Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for education will be set up with a total outlay of 500 crore.

Budget announced that Government will arrange for Gig workers’ identity cards, their registration on the e-Shram portal and healthcare under PM Jan Arogya Yojana.

Under the investment in Economy, Sitharaman said Infrastructure-related ministries will come up with a 3-year pipeline of projects in PPP mode.

The Jal Jeevan Mission was extended till 2028 with focus on the quality of infrastructure and Operation & Maintenance of rural piped water supply schemes through “Jan Bhagidhari”.

Government will set up an Urban Challenge Fund of Rs.1 lakh crore to implement the proposals for ‘Cities as Growth Hubs’, ‘Creative Redevelopment of Cities’ and ‘Water and Sanitation’.

Under the investment in Innovation, an allocation of Rs 20,000 crore is announced to implement private sector driven Research, Development and Innovation initiative.

Finance Minister proposed National Geospatial Mission to develop foundational geospatial infrastructure and data which will benefit urban planning.

Budget proposes Gyan Bharatam Mission, for survey, documentation and conservation of  more than 1 crore manuscripts with academic institutions, museums, libraries and private collectors. A National Digital Repository of Indian knowledge systems for knowledge sharing is also proposed.

4th Engine: Exports

Nirmala Sitharaman defined Exports as the fourth engine of growth and said that jointly driven by the Ministries of Commerce, MSME, and Finance; Export Promotion Mission will help MSMEs tap into the export market. She added that a digital public infrastructure, ‘BharatTradeNet’(BTN) for international trade was proposed as a unified platform for trade documentation and financing solutions.