As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget for FY 2018-19, agriculture stocks gained ground.
Here are the key reactions.
Alloction for Education
“I welcome heartily the government 's plan and focus to move classroom black boards to digital boards.I also welcome the emphasis to be given to training of untrained teachers and allocation of 1 lakh crore for education research.Its also very commendable about the plans if coming up with 24 new Medical colleges.Also commendable is the plan of at least one medical college every three constituencies."
Sardar Taranjit Singh, MD, JIS Group
On smart cities
" True to the commitment, Smart Cities programme is progressing well and with continued budgetary support, these cities will greatly benefit from a new ecosystem of infrastructure leveraged on the thrust of using technology as the backbone. Modernisation of Railway infrastructure, like Smart Cities, has been a compelling need and the new commitment by the FM would firmly take the Railway in this direction. "
Milind Kothari, Managing Partner, BDO India
“The Finance Minister has, in his speech, laid out a powerful report card by referring to the commitments made by him with regard to the farm and consumer sectors in the earlier years and not only giving the status of the outcome of various measures but also announcing various measures to promote this key sector.
"He has re-iterated the Government’s promise of doubling the income of the farmers by 2022 and also announced various additional allocation and funds in this sector. With 150% increase in MSP for crops, support to organic farming, doubling the expenditure allocation to INR 1,400 crores for food processing sector, state of the art facilities to 42 food parks, liberalisation of agricultural exports, allocation of INR 10, 000 crore to fisheries, animal husbandries and related infrastructure, this budget is in true sense a Roti-Kapada and Kisaan budget.
"Perhaps for the first time there is a special attention to the ancillary sector including infrastructure which will help the overall consumer and farm sector. The focus of these measures to ensure that the farm produce reach the ultimate consumers from the farms with maximum returns for farmers, introduction of facilities and technology leading to reduction in wastage in the sector, a boost to the fishery, aquaculture and animal husbandry sectors.”
Anil Talreja, Partner Deloitte India
