Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke on the importance of technology and related requirements for people and businesses, at the Interim Budget 2024. During the budget session, Sitharaman stressed on the need for the Indian data landscape for creating new economic opportunities and facilitating provision of high-quality services at affordable prices for all, and how opportunities for the country are expanding at a global level.
From what it’s understood, Sitharaman spoke on the need of innovation for laying the foundation for development, as the current time period should be a golden era for tech-savvy youth. Reportedly, Sitharaman highlighted that new technology will be created for developing deep tech in the defence sector and expediting ‘atmanirbharta’, while also announcing a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus with 50-year interest free loan to ensure long-term financing or refinancing over a long period having little to no interest rates. It’s believed that the corpus will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation in sunrise domains.
Sitharaman also stressed on how infrastructures, such as physical, digital or social, are being built in record time, while also focusing on how the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is instrumental in the 21st century for formalisation of the economy.
