Eyeing rural poor, Budget to focus on agri and infra

In a break from tradition, Mr Jaitley is likely to deliver his Budget speech in Hindi. He will not only become the first Union finance minister to do so since Independence, but this will also help in establishing the fact that the Union Budget for 2018- 19 is going to be an ‘ aam budget’ for ‘ aam admi’

With Union finance minister Arun Jaitley all set to present the last full Budget of the NDA government before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the government is likely to keep its focus on boosting the agriculture and infrastructure sectors with an eye on wooing the rural poor and investing in big ticket projects to bring in more private investments.

Setting up of a smart food mission and a land bank corporation could be in the offing in the Union Budget for 2018- 19, sources privy to developments said.

Keen on wooing the rural votebank with just a little over a year left for the general elections, the Narendra Modi government is understood to have finalised some major initiatives in the agriculture and infrastructure sectors, they added.

After high- level parleys with the agriculture ministry and Niti Aayog, the finance ministry is learnt to be seriously considering the proposal of setting up a smart food mission, under which nutricereals could be integrated in the public distribution system in order to provide it with greater market support.

Also in what could be a major telecommunication gift to the rural sector, highly- placed sources said that during recent deliberations on the Budget within the Niti Aayog and Prime Minister’s Office, a proposal to use white space technology for ensuring last mile Internet broadband connectivity in villages may also be announced.