Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that highly populated railway networks of India will soon get a 'made in India', fully automated system of train protection that will eliminate accidents due to human error.
"The safety measures undertaken in the past few years by the Railways have borne results and to further strengthen this effort high density networks will be provided with an indigenously developed automatic train protection system that eliminates train collisions due to human error," said the Finance Minister. Further, the Railways will monetise dedicated freight corridors. For 2021-22, capital expenditure is projected at Rs 5.54 lakh crore which is up by 34.5 per cent year-on-year (YoY). "I propose around Rs 1.07 lakh crore for capital expenditure of Indian Railways," said Sitharaman.
Global economy, which was slowing down, was pushed into uncertainty due to COVID-19. The risk of not having a lockdown was far more, far too high, said the Finance Minister. Amid the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the Finance Minister presented a paperless budget. This is the first time in India's history that a paperless Union Budget was presented. As the budget papers will not be printed, the Finance Minister has also launched an official mobile app to provide complete access to all budget documents. The mobile app can be downloaded from the Union Budget Web Portal www.indiabudget.gov.in.
The Finance Minister had assured a budget “like never before”. The budget 2021 has a greater significance as it comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused economic disruption.
FM Nirmala Sitharaman replaced the Swadeshi 'bahi khata' and switched to a tablet. She was seen carrying a tablet kept inside a red coloured cover with a golden coloured national emblem embossed on it. The Economic Survey 2020, presented by FM Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday pegged the GDP growth at 11 per cent in FY22.
