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In a big push for welfare of small entrepreneurs, poor farmers, pensioners and others, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced the setting up of a Micro Units Development Refinance Board, called Mudra Bank, which will refinance micro institutions with a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore.
He also promised to raise the allocation under MGNREGA by Rs 5,000 crore over and above the 2015-16 Budget Estimates of Rs 34,669 crore. “This will help in raising in rural wages and give this scheme the highest ever allocation,” Jaitley said. DBT will be expanded to cover all other services not just LPG.
In agriculture, the finance minister announced the expansion of the Prime Minister Krishi Sinchaee Yojana, by hiking its allocation to Rs 5,330 crore in 2015-16 as against Rs 1,000 crore in 2014-15.
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The farm credit target for 2015-16 has also been raised to Rs 8.5 lakh crore and a National Agriculture Market will be established in consultation with the states by using the platform of NITI. The soil health card scheme of the union agriculture ministry will be expanded to cover the entire country by end of 2015-16.
