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Indian stock markets reacted positively to the Union Budget for 2023-24 with benchmark indices rising over 1,000 points to breach the 60,000 mark.
Barring the Nifty oil and gas index, all other indices traded in the green, National Stock Exchange data showed. Nifty bank, financial services, and private bank rose the most. This year's budget is significant being the last full budget of PM Narendra Modi government's second tenure with general elections scheduled for next year. Union Finance Minister, in her Budget speech in Parliament on Wednesday, announced that the government proposes to increase capital expenditure outlay by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore in 2023-24, which would be 3.3 per cent of the GDP. "(This overall outlay) would be 3.3 per cent of GDP, almost three times the outlay made in 2019-20. With the substantial increase, it is central to the government's efforts to enhance growth potential and job creation, the crowd in private investments and provides a cushion against global headwinds," Sitharaman said in her Budget speech. The outlay for Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) has been enhanced by 66 per cent to over Rs 79,000 crore. Further, the government proposed a capital outlay of about Rs 2.40 lakh crore for the Indian Railways. This budgeted outlay for the railways, Sitharaman told Parliament, is the highest ever and nine times of what it was in 2013. The government proposes to increase the agricultural credit target to Rs 20 lakh crore with a focus on animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries, Sitharaman told Parliament. The agriculture sector of the country has been growing at an average annual growth rate of 4.6 per cent in the last six years. The Economic Survey, tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, noted India's GDP is expected to grow in the range of 6 to 6.8 per cent in the coming financial year 2023-24. This is in comparison to the estimated 7 per cent this fiscal and 8.7 per cent in 2021-22. (ANI)
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