Budget is futuristic, growth-oriented: K'taka Minister K Sudhakar

"The first budget of 'Amrit Kaal' presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is futuristic, growth-oriented and has laid a strong foundation for India @100 in 2047. The Budget has focussed on every sector and will benefit every section of society giving an impetus to the Aatmanibhar Bharat vision," he said.

The health minister also stated that the budget addressed the concerns of the hardworking salaried middle class by increasing the income tax exemption limit to 7 lakhs.

"In a nutshell, the seven priorities of the Budget - inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential of India, Green growth, banking on youth power and bolstering the finance sector, will take the country further on the growth trajectory," he said.

The minister also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for central assistance of Rs 5,300 crore for the Upper Bhadra Project.

"This will immensely benefit the people of Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, Tumkur and Davangere districts by providing irrigation facilities to farmers and recharging the groundwater table to provide drinking water in drought-prone taluks of these districts," he said.

He also lauded the Economic Survey 2023 tabled in the Parliament which showed that the central and state governments' budgeted expenditure in the health sector reached 2.1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022-23.

"This is in the direction of the vision of National Health Policy - 2017, which has envisaged increasing the government's health expenditure to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025. The share of the government's health expenditure in total health outlay has increased from 28.6 per cent in 2014 to 40.6 per cent in 2019. Thanks to Ayushman Bharat, the out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) as a share of total health expenditure came down to 48.2 per cent in 2019 from 64.2 per cent in 2014," the health minister said.

K Sudhakar also termed the budget proposal to establish 157 new nursing colleges in co-location with the existing 157 medical colleges established since 2014 as a welcome move to address the increasing human resource needs in the healthcare sector.

"The mission to eliminate Sickle Cell Anaemia by 2047 with the universal screening of 7 crore people in the age group of 0-40 years in affected tribal areas, and counselling through collaborative efforts of central ministries and state governments is yet another step towards healthier India," he said.

"The decision to make facilities in select ICMR Labs available for research by public and private medical college faculty and private sector R&D teams will encourage collaborative research and innovation in a big way making us battle ready for future healthcare challenges. Launching dedicated multidisciplinary courses for medical devices will go a long way in ensuring the availability of skilled manpower for futuristic medical technologies, high-end manufacturing and research," he added. (ANI)