Budget 2018: A look at schemes that the Modi govt inherited and improved

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Finance minister Arun Jaitley will be presenting the all-important Union Budget 2018-19 on Thursday with an eye toward the general elections scheduled to take place next year.

The budget presented Jaitley on Thursday will also be the last full budget presented by the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government before the election. The budget presented by the government next year, before the general elections, will be an interim budget.

This will also be the first budget after the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) earlier this fiscal year. While the GST Council is now the body responsible for determining how much an item should be taxed, the budget remains important for income tax and to review the government's revenue and spending.

According to observers, the government is likely to heavily allocate funds for its marquee schemes. It is also likely to allocate more money to schemes aimed at improving rural development, agriculture and employment.

Several schemes currently being implemented by the government had been initiated during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) dispensation.

Here's a look at some of the Central government schemes and programmes that the current government may not have come up with but has certainly furthered during its term.

MGNREGA

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a  labour law and social security measure that aims at guaranteeing people the 'right to work'.

While the scheme had been launched under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, its allocations have steadily increased under the current government.

Last year, the Centre allotted Rs 48,000 crore to the scheme. This was a marginal increase from what it had allotted the year before.

In 2016, NREGS, which manages the scheme, had been allotted Rs 47,499 crore through budget allocation and through supplementary budgets.

Prior to that, Arun Jaitley had allotted Rs 33,000 crore and Rs 37,000 crore, respectively, in 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion programme (SANKALP) under NSDC

Although the National Skill Development Corporation was first proposed by then finance minister P Chidambaram during the erstwhile UPA government's term, the NSDC has come a long way since then.

Just to put things in perspective, Chidambaram had announced an allocation of Rs 1,000 crore for a skill development training programme under NSDC in 2013.

The NSDC now runs programmes such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP), Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE) and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras.

For 2017-18, Jaitley had allotted Rs 3,016 crore to the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, a ministry that was first set up when the NDA government came to power in 2014. This was more than 1.5 times the allocation of Rs 1,804 crore in 2016-17.

However, what is noteworthy is that Jaitley also proposed allotting Rs 4,000 crore for SANKALP and Rs 2,200 crore for STRIVE, over and above the amount allocated to the ministry.

BharatNet

The UPA government in 2012 launched a project called the National Optic Fibre Network at a proposed cost of Rs 20,000 crore.

Today, the project has been renamed BharatNet and is just one of the many programmes under the government's broader Digital India initiative.

The BharatNet programme, ever since its inception, has been aimed at providing a minimum of 100 Mbps broadband connectivity to each of the 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in India, covering around 6.25 lakh villages.

The NDA government in the 2017-18 budget allotted Rs 10,000 crore for the now renamed 'BharatNet' project.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY)

The Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin) was called the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) before it was restructured in 2015 by the Modi government.

IAY had been started by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The scheme intends to provide to provide housing for the rural poor in the country.

Announcing the Centre’s proposal "to complete one crore houses by 2019 for those living in kachha houses", finance minister Jaitley had allocated Rs 15,000 crore for the PMAY in 2015-16.

In the 2017-18 budget, this allocation was increased to Rs 23,000 crore.