While presenting the annual Union Budget for the financial year 2024-25, today, February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that this will be a “golden era” for the tech-savvy youth of India.

Speaking about how the Centre strives to boost research and innovation, the finance minister said that there is a need to have programmes that combine the powers of our youth and technology.

“A corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore will be established with a 50-year interest-free loan provider. The corpus will provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenures and low or nil interest rates. This will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains,” Sitharaman said today.

Ahead of the budgetary session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday, January 31, had said that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the upcoming interim budget with "Disha-Nirdeshak Baatein" (vision-guided approach) and display the strength of “Nari Shakti” (women empowerment). The President of India, Droupadi Murmu also addressed the Parliament and hailed the progress of India as an emerging strong economy. 

One of the most important sectors, Education and Literacy, saw a rise in the budgetary allocation, up from Rs 59,503 crore allocated in 2022-23 to a whopping Rs 68,805 crore in 2023-24. What more is in store for this year? Stay tuned for the updates to find out more on the Union Budget 2024.