Budget 2021 LIVE: Insurance FDI raised to 74%, foreign ownership allowed

 

Budget 2021 LIVE updates: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting her third Union Budget in Parliament. Sitharaman said the Budget for 2021-22 rests on six pillars – from healthcare to infrastructure. The finance minister has also announced a total spend of around Rs 2 trillion on healthcare and mega national highway projects in election-bound states of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala.

The Budget speech is being keenly watched by both domestic and foreign investors, various interest groups like farmers, anxious middle class and corporate entities, besides parliamentarians.

As the Covid-19 pandemic hit India last year, the government witnessed a rising expenditure and tumbling revenue, even as economic activity came to a standstill due to the pandemic-induced lockdown. However, the economy is now in a recovery mode. On Friday, the government tabled the Economic Survey 2020, which pegged India's real GDP growth at 11 per cent in FY22. Meanwhile, the finance minister has promised a 'Budget like never before'. At the start of the joint session of Parliament on Friday, PM Narendra Modi said the FM had already announced three to four mini budgets and that the 2021-22 Budget should be seen as an extension of the same effort.

While the country awaits FM Sitharaman's Budget presentation, there are some key issues we must keep in mind -- economic recovery is still fragile and fiscal interventions are necessary; and there are constraints in the government’s execution capacity. Read More