Despite the bold talk about innovations in the governance and service delivery system, this Budget hardly takes a step in ‘walking the talk’. In the areas of education and health particularly, the failure to think out of the box is simply disastrous for a young country. A wealth of new ideas like vouchers for education, health and food security have been discussed, some of which have already been piloted either by the government or by think-tanks.
In social safety net areas, the Budget increased allocations for the existing or already-announced schemes. Similarly, for higher education, the outlay increased by Rs 2,000 crore. The government thoughtfully added an interest subsidy for higher-education loans and expanded the range of courses for which loans could be availed of, including vocational studies. The minority education allocations have been increased from Rs 1,000 crore last year to Rs 1,740 crore. It gives pre- and post-matric scholarships and a new National Fellowship. But the biggest challenge for the scholarship schemes has been the failure to even meet its own previous targets. There is an urgent need to budget for awareness programmes and enrolment drives within these schemes.