New Delhi: India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table the Economic Survey in Parliament on Monday, July 22, a day before she unveils the Union Budget for a record seventh time. The upcoming budget aims to address unemployment and other ongoing issues in the country.
Continuing the trend of the last few years, the 2024 Union Budget will be delivered in a paperless format. Notably, the Budget for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for 2024 will be presented on July 23, 2024.
Here are 10 Key Highlights of the Economic Survey And Budget 2024 You Need to Know
1. The Economic Survey is made by the Economic Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance.
2. The first Economic Survey started in 1950-51 and was part of the budget documents. In the 1960s, it was separated from the budget documents and presented the day before the Union Budget.
3. In 2022, the theme of the Economic Survey was ‘Agile Approach,’ focusing on India’s economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
4. In 2023, the theme was ‘Recovery Complete’ as the economy was recovering during the Russia-Ukraine war and trying to return to pre-Covid conditions.
5. This year’s Budget will be Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s first major policy announcement after winning a third term in the Lok Sabha elections.
6. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will break the record set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959 and 1964 as Finance Minister. She has also surpassed Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P. Chidambaram, and Yashwant Sinha, who each presented five budgets.
7. The Reserve Bank of India recently increased the GDP forecast for the current year 2024-25 to 7.2% from 7% earlier. Strong domestic demand has driven the economy to a growth rate of over 7% in recent years.
8. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised India’s growth forecast for 2024 from 6.8% to 7%, keeping the country as the fastest-growing in emerging markets and developing economies.
9. For 2023-24, the government set the fiscal deficit target at 5.9% of GDP, later revised to 5.8%.
10. India is expected to become the world’s third-largest economy with a GDP of USD 5 trillion in the next three years. By 2030, India could become a USD 7 trillion economy. (With inputs from ANI)