New Delhi Feb 1 (IANS) In his last full Budget speech Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said India is poised to become $5 trillion economy soon from $2.5 trillion now. His speech focused more on the education healthcare and agriculture.
"We are now a $ 2.5 trillion economy and we are firmly on path to achieve 8 per cent plus growth soon " Jaitley said while delivering his Union Budget 2018-19 speech here.
"We hope to grow at 7.2 per cent to 7.5 per cent in the second half of 2017-18 " he added.
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"Rural infra livelihood expenditure to be Rs 14.34 lakh cr in 2018-"9 " he added.
"From ease of doing business our govt has moved to ease of living for the poor and middle class " he said.
Jaitley said the government will set up a Rs 2 000 crore Agri-Market Development Fund.
Planning to boost micro small and medium entreprises (MSME) the government plans to augment lending capacity under it to Rs 3 lakh crore in 2018-19.
He said two new planning and architecture schools to be set up in IITs. The government would use technology to improve education"from "blackboard to digital" oard" . It has allocated Rs 1.38 lakh crore in FY19 for government health and education programmes.
--IANS
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