Budget 2021 for social infrastructure: Healthcare, education sectors cheer on FM Sitharaman’s push

Union Budget 2021: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a big push for social infrastructure for this fiscal. The budget proposed a Rs 2,23,846 crore budget outlay for healthcare sector and well-being for the year 2021-22, an increase of 137 per cent from the outlay kept at Rs 94,452 crore in the current fiscal. The government also announced a new centrally-funded scheme PM Swasthya Yojana having an outlay of Rs 64,180 crore which is aimed at strengthening and developing primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities even in the last miles. Apart from this, the reinforcement of New Education Policy has also found mention in the budget announced on Monday. Industry experts surely see these moves as a massive boost in development of social infrastructure.

Here is what experts have to say

Sanjiv Navangul, MD & CEO, Bharat Serums and Vaccines

“A well spent allocation of INR 64,000 cr under the new Atmanirbhar Swasthya Bharat Yojana scheme will show significant results thus labelling healthy India as an encouraging effort. And, the infrastructural push will certainly create many more skilled jobs revitalizing the overall ecosystem.”

Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director, Bharat Biotech

“The new health infra schemes with significantly higher outlay of Rs 35,000 crore for Bharat’s mega COVID19 vaccination drive is a huge fiscal medicine to contain the pandemic, reduce disease burden for the population, and the economy.”

Ashok Patel, Founder & CEO, Max Ventilator

“Keeping in mind the learning curve from Covid-19, the government has done well to finally take the bull by its horns. Raising the healthcare budget by 137% at more than 2.23 lakh crore signals that resolve of the government and was a much-needed measure. More importantly, the government’s inclusion of preventive medicine, curative medicine and well being implies that it is taking a comprehensive view of health and not adopting an ad-hoc policy stance. The expansion of PLI scheme with an allocation of 1.97 lakh crore for the next five years will also impart a boost to the medical device manufacturing in the country.”

Nikkhil K Masurkar, Executive Director, ENTOD International Pharmaceutical

“The government through its proposed healthcare funds for 2021 should give emphasis on preventative health measures such as screening programmes for heart disease, diabetes & glaucoma as well as other national health awareness campaigns. Particular importance should be given to regular comprehensive screening of children’s health in schools and government organised health fairs.”

Irwin Anand, MD, Udemy India

A welcome change happened with NEP last year and the budget 2021 continues to reinforce that. The implementation of NEP in 15000 schools to create a model is a good move. It will promote coherence among educational institutions and increase the flexibility in education delivery by using face-to-face, online and hybrid models. Collaboration with countries like Japan for sharing of technology and UAE for skill development courses are also welcome moves. These will increase the chances of employability for our youth. The steps to set-up a Higher Education Commission and 750 Ekalavya residential schools in the Tribal Areas are also commendable. These steps will allow students from across the country to have access to quality education.

Suman Varma, Chief Marketing Officer (Medicine Division), Hamdard Laboratories

“The addition of more health care centers and the overall increase in health was also awaited to improve the healthcare infrastructure capabilities of the nation. It is encouraging for us to see a 137% increase in the overall investment in the health and wellness sector from the government. With this budget, the healthcare sector will get benefited and as a health and wellness brand, our focus will continue to be on reinventing ourselves and relentlessly working to provide better and healthier products to our consumers. We believe this budget is a positive dose for the economy and will certainly build the economic health of the country.“

Prof. (Dr.) Atmanand, Director (Additional Charge), MDI Gurgaon

“The National Education Policy 2020 was a great step towards the betterment of our education platform in India, however, it majorly depends on its meticulous implementation. We think with the Union Budget 2021, there is a clear line of execution with the first layer of 15,000 schools which will then act as mentors. With the inclusion of the Research and Development in Education sector by collaborating with many countries, we hope the best practices from countries all around the globe get implemented in our system so that B-schools and higher education students make the most of it. National Language translation mission to translate policy-related information into regional languages will help the content to reach tier-2 and tier-3 cities. A Central University in Leh will help the students to receive a quality education. 3000 crores have been allotted to The Apprenticeship Act which plans to increase opportunities for students and training of engineering graduates, post-graduates, and diploma holders.”

Pratik Agarwal, Co-founder and Chief of growth at SOAL

“The Union Budget 2021 has shown a good execution of the National Education Policy and it’s good to know that the Government is following up on the NEP, which had shown a lot of promise when it was released back in 2020. We appreciate that the government is focusing on digitisation, be it the census or boosts for 1500 crore digital payments and 15.7 thousand crores for MSMEs. It shows STEM and learning to code will continue to grow as an integral part of one’s learning journey- which is the need of the hour.”