'World's largest' public healthcare scheme UnveiledNEW DELHI, Feb 1 : India's government promised hundreds of billions of dollars to develop poor rural areas and help struggling farmers in its annual budget on Thursday, looking to win over voters ahead of the next general election.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government would spend $220 billion on rural infrastructure, including building new roads and toilets and bringing electricity to millions of rural households.
Jaitley also announced a national healthcare scheme that will enable half a billion poor Indians to access up to 500,000 rupees ($7,855) a year for treatment, a key step in a country where many people have little access to affordable medical care.
It's thought to be one of the largest such schemes in the world, and is likely to be popular with rural voters. India presently spends a little over 1% of its GDP on public healthcare, one of the lowest in the world.
But small businesses and the rural economy were the main focus of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government's last full-year budget before national elections due by May 2019.
"While making the proposals in this year's budget, we have been guided by our mission to especially strengthen agriculture, rural development, health, education, employment, MSME (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) and infrastructure sectors of the Indian economy," Jaitley told parliament as he summed up the budget.
"I am sure the new India which we aspire to create now will emerge." -AFP
