“This Budget seeks to lay the foundation and give a blueprint to steer the economy over the Amrit Kaal of the next 25 years – from India at 75 to India at 100”. The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, laid this vision, while presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament today. She made the announcement for the next launch of Ease of Living under Amrit Kaal.
The Union Minister explained that this new phase of Ease of living will be guided by an approach comprising of the following:
- Active involvement of the states,
- Digitisation of manual processes and interventions
- Integration of the central and state-level systems through IT bridges.
This will help in creating a single point access for all citizen-centric services and bring about standardization and removal of overlapping compliances.
Issuance of chip embedded e-Passports
The Finance Minister announced that the issuance of e-Passports using embedded chip and futuristic Technology will be rolled out in 2022-23. This will further enhance the convenience for citizens in their overseas travel.
Modernization of building byelaws and town/urban planning
Modernization of building byelaws, Town Planning Schemes (TPS), and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) have also been proposed by the Finance Minister to bring about reforms in Urban planning. This will facilitate reforms for the people to live and work closer to mass transit systems.
In this regard, the Union Minister also said that, “the Central Government’s financial support for mass transit projects and AMRUT scheme will be leveraged for formulation of action plans and their implementation for facilitating TOD and TPS by the states”.
Establishing Centres of Excellence in urban planning
For developing India specific knowledge in urban planning and design, and to deliver certified training in these areas, up to five existing academic institutions in different regions have been proposed to be designated as Centres of Excellence. Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman also informed to the house that these centres will be provided endowment funds of Rs. 250 crore each.
Battery Swapping Policy
The Finance Minister, while highlighting the constraint of space in urban areas for setting up
charging stations at scale, announced the proposal of bringing out Battery Swapping Policy and
inter-operability standards. “The private sector will be encouraged to develop sustainable and innovative business models for ‘Battery or Energy as a Service’ ”, the Minister noted.
