People needed immediate relief from Budget, not promises of economic growth in next 25 years

Production Linked Incentive Schemes, as it has been claimed, would create 60 lakh new jobs in next 5 years, but it is too little. It is only a small scheme under Aatmanirbhar Bharat.Unemployment in the rural are cannot be effectively dealt with merely setting up of a proposed fund to finance agriculture and rural startups.The worse urban unemployment conditions can also not be effectively tackled with without quick economic recovery of industries and urban market, over which uncertainties looms large.As for health, the vaccination campaign has greatly helped the country to deal with the present Omicron wave. However, we need to be prepared for present and future heath crises. We needed large investment in health infrastructure, drugs, doctors, and healthcare personnel so that their physical availability would have been possible.As against the physical availability, the Budget has announced an open platform for the ‘National Digital Health Ecosystem’ to be rolled out in the next financial year. It would consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health facilities.Such a system will have its own benefit, but it can never increase the number of health providers and health facilities in which the country badly needed public expenditure to be increased substantially.As for the National Tele Mental Health programme, it would also not work effectively in areas where people don’t have physical access to even healthcare personnel, drug stores, or even health centres.



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