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The <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> government has decided, and is all set to achieve, the targets for the next two years regarding the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (<keyword id="145241" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="MGNREGS">MGNREGS</keyword>). Reportedly, these targets are bigger than what the scheme has accomplished in the last 10 years. 
 
As per the plans, the rural development ministry would be adding 1 million farm ponds and wells and another million vermi composting farms under the programme. This figure is almost equal to the total such assets the scheme has as of now, created in the past decade by the UPA government. The coming budget would help sharpening focus on rural sector schemes in a big way. 
 
Out of the Rs 75,000 crore that was allocated, the rural development ministry has utilised more than 90% in the past 10 years. This budget is now expected to be doubled this year, because of the expansion of development schemes, including the rural jobs programme. 
 
"NREGS has a crucial role to play now since we are converging it with all our other schemes. Having utilised most of our funds, we need to continue to create more assets and multiple opportunities for livelihood for the rural poor," a senior rural development ministry official told ET. 
 
By creating farm ponds and dug wells, the government aims to make NREGS a green scheme, and greater push would be given to agriculture and irrigation-related activities. 
 
The government wants to achieve breakthroughs in assured irrigation in areas where rain decides the fate of the crop as well as the areas where ground water is available. 
 
Along with state agricultural departments, the rural development and agriculture ministries have coordinated so that NREGS can be used to boost multitier cropping and generate livelihood through farming. The animal husbandry department is also collaborating on NREGS so that poultry and goat sheds can be constructed in villages. 
 
The government is also making sure that the workers get their payments on time, as delayed payments have been slashed by 72% and it is further aimed to be brought down to single digits by June this year. 
 
However, PM Modi has not always been a fan of the scheme, having called it an example of six decades of failure by the Congress. One could think that these targets are just a smart way of the Modi government to dismantle the MGNREGS scheme altogether.

Is Modi trying to dismantle MGNREGS by setting
an overtly high asset target?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her fifth Budget that may do a tightrope walk between staying fiscally prudent and meeting general public expectations of lower taxes and a wider social security net, while at the same time firing the engines of the economy. Sitharaman had in her first Budget in 2019 replaced leather briefcase -- which had been in used for decades for carrying Budget documents -- with a traditional 'bahi-khata' wrapped in red cloth. Budget 2023-24 would be in paperless form, as done in the last two years, and would be available on the 'Union Budget Mobile App' for hassle-free access by Members of Parliament (MPs) and the general public. Here are the key numbers to watch for in Budget 2023-24, which is widely expected to boost spending towards policies that create jobs, leave more money in hands of the common man and boost manufacturing, while increasing tax revenues. * <keyword id="6365485" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Fiscal-Deficit" source="Orion">Fiscal Deficit</keyword>: The budgeted fiscal deficit, which is the difference between the government expenditure and income, for the current fiscal ending March 2023 is 6.4 per cent, against 6.71 per cent in the last fiscal. The number for 2023-24 would be in focus as it is widely expected that the government would open its purse strings in an election year. * Disinvestment/Privatisation: In current fiscal year the budgeted disinvestment target is likely to be missed, like the past four years. It is expected the government would set a realistic target for next fiscal. * <keyword id="112324" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Capital-Expenditure" source="Orion">Capital Expenditure</keyword>: The government's planned capital expenditure for this fiscal year is budgeted at Rs 7.5 lakh crore, higher than Rs 5.5 lakh crore in the last fiscal. The government has been pushing infrastructure creation and also incentivising states to step up capex. * Tax Revenue: The Budget had pegged direct and indirect tax mop-up at Rs 14.20 lakh crore and Rs 13.30 lakh crore for current fiscal, taking the total figure to Rs 27.50 lakh crore. The government's tax revenues are expected to overshoot the budget estimates by about Rs 4 lakh crore on buoyant income tax and customs duty. * <keyword id="6370254" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Borrowing" source="Orion">Borrowing</keyword>: The government's gross borrowing budget was at Rs 14.31 lakh crore in current financial year ending March 31. The government borrows from the market to fund its fiscal deficit and with tax revenues seeing an uptick, the government has cut its gross borrowings by Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 14.21 lakh crore. The borrowing number would be watched by the market, especially on the back of expected higher capital expenditures to boost growth. * <keyword id="3236955" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nominal-GDP" source="Orion">Nominal GDP</keyword>: India's nominal GDP growth (real GDP plus inflation) in the current fiscal is estimated to be 15.4 per cent. The numbers for next fiscal would be lower as the inflation has come down. The Budget is expected to give an outline on the nominal GDP growth numbers. Real GDP growth in current fiscal is projected at 7 per cent and come down to 6-6.5 per cent in the next. * Spotlight would also be on spending on key schemes, like NREGA, as well as key sectors like health and education.

Budget for world's fastest growing economy: Key numbers to be watched

NEW DELHI: ET’s March 1, 2013 Budget Edition carried a sharp commentary by a man who was then one of India’s many chief ministers. A little over a year later he became India’s <keyword id="71" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Prime-Minister">prime minister</keyword>. In about a week from now his government will present its first budget. 
	 <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>’s 2013 budget commentary for ET, even granting it was written from the perspective of a CM from the then national opposition party, offers interesting insights into how India’s <keyword id="336585" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="current-PM">current PM</keyword> thinks a good budget should look like. 
	 
	Here’s Modi 2013 analysed for clues to Modi 2014: 
	 
	Don’t Play Safe: “This budget is-…piecemeal…UPA…wants to play safe,” Modi had written in ET. His 2013 commentary had mocked UPA repeatedly for not thinking big. It’s safe to assume Modi in 2014 would want to avoid being tagged as “playing safe”. The ‘I will change things’ politics of his election victory doesn’t allow that option. 
	 
	Find Cash for Infra: “Against the much-needed Rs 55 lakh crore for infrastructure development, the budget attempts to mobilise a meagre Rs 50,000 crore”, Modi had observed in 2013, and built on this theme of neglect of big projects. Finding big money for big projects will define 2014 budget as a Modi budget like little else would. 
	 
	 
	Skill Them Young: “The <keyword id="26374" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="UPA-government">UPA government</keyword> has allocated a mere Rs 1,000 crore for skill development. Contrast that with the Rs 800 crore for just one state, Gujarat, has allocated for skill development”. That 2013 observation by Modi in ET, who also said even rich countries like the US do more to tackle skill shortage, played out throughout his 2013-14 poll campaign and is again a signature Modi theme. Modi wants even plain vanilla welfare scheme NREGA to be retooled into a skills programme. Smart ideas and substantial fiscal backing for skills development can be another Modi imprimatur on Budget 2014. 
	 
	No Fiscal Fudge: Modi wrote in ET, while commenting on UPA’s fiscal deficit targeting, that “without any clear measure to mop up tax revenues and increase (tax) collection efficiency”, deficit targeting will lead to “cuts in development spending”. Many experts said this, too. And they will say it about Modi’s budget even more should it try a fiscal fudge. But Modi’s 2013 ET commentary shows he knows the severe reputational costs of a fudge. Cutting deficits sharply but honestly will make Modi’s 2014 budget stand out clearly from UPA’s last few budgets. 
	 
	Feel Federal: “States have been requesting the Centre to address the issue of deficit of trust…,” Modi had written in the context of critiquing the 2013 budget for what he saw as being insufficiently federal in terms of resource allocation. Many PMs and FMs don’t pay enough attention to federalism issues in Union budgets. But this PM, the first serving CM to get the country’s top job, may have a different approach. GST rollout is critically dependent on statesand Modi has courted some CMs already. His 2014 budget may try and address that ‘trust deficit’.
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	Avoid Gimmicks: “The move to set up the world’s first public sector women’s bank is a mockery…”, Modi had written in ET, rubbishing a proposal <keyword id="43940" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="P-Chidambaram">P Chidambaram</keyword> had claimed was radical. Experts had disagreed with Chidambaram. And that Modi had decided to attack a 2013 budget proposal that had seemed politically correct indicates he may not want his 2014 budget to be critiqued for gimmicky and superficial ideas.

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Is Modi trying to dismantle MGNREGS by setting an overtly high asset target?

Budget for world's fastest growing economy: Key numbers to be watched

PTI

Budget 2014: How PM Narendra Modi's First Budget May Look Like

economic times

I’m An Outsider To Delhi And To Politics As Well, Narendra Modi Says (Full Text Of Modi Interview)

Times Of India

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