Budget 2017: Mission Antyodaya may be the step in the right direction

Rajat WahiThis year’s budget is expected to focus more on the rural development sector as this sector is key to generating rural consumption which could offset the effects of the demonetisation drive across sectors and industries. The approach is expected to be a multi-pronged targeting of the rural economy across sectors including but not limited to agriculture.With the aim of reaching out to the last person in India, the Centre has started working on the Mission Antyodaya scheme which aims to converge social welfare plans and schemes across ministries and target these to reach individual households.This seems to be a move in the right direction which aims to ensure the targeted delivery of benefits across schemes as well as prevent any leakages due to the same. It was the general expectation all along that the budget this year would seek to enhance the allocation to popular social welfare schemes as well as introduce major schemes which could target the lower sections of the SEC-C*. The rural economy is a major contributor to the nation’s GDP and has also been impacted to a large extent by the demonetisation move. In order to offset the slowdown in rural consumption as well as alleviate the effects of demonetisation, the focus on larger allocations and newer social welfare schemes targeted at the rural sector is a move along expected lines.The Mission Antyodaya scheme if announced could go a long way in simplifying the access to benefits of a plethora of social welfare schemes and can also help ensure the greater transmission of the scheme benefits. Since this scheme is expected to encompass schemes from ministries of health, education, employment and social security (insurance schemes under financial services), the recipient can access varied benefits under one umbrella. The transmission due to such a convergence is likely to be very high and could also enable extensive coverage. This can go a long way in helping the government achieve its aim of reaching the poorest of the poor and the disenfranchised. Also, the convergence of multiple schemes under a single scheme could enable the government to migrate all these to the digital Aadhar-enabled platform thereby contributing further to the Digital India mission aims.However, it should also be kept in mind that such a scheme should not be a means of doling out greater subsidies thereby contributing to the fiscal deficit. Rather the aim should be to enable greater simplification, higher coverage and targeted delivery of benefits as well as minimise or eliminate any transmission leakages.* SEC C is Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011(SEC C)The author is Partner, Consumer Markets and Agriculture Sector at KPMG in IndiaThe views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of KPMG in India.