New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore to be established with 50-year interest free loans to encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation in sunrise domains.
Presenting the Interim Budget 2024-25, N Sitharaman asserted that former Prime Minister Lal Bhadur Shastrai gave Jai Jawan Jai Kisan slogan. Atal Bihari Vajpaee gave Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan and Jai Anusandhan.
"Innovation is the foundation of development. New age technologies and data are changing the lives of people and businesses. They are also enabling new economic opportunities and facilitating provision of high-quality services at affordable prices for all, including those at ‘bottom of the pyramid’. Opportunities for India at the global level are 17 expanding. India is showing solutions through innovation and entrepreneurship of its people," Finance Minister said in her speech.
"Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri gave the slogan of “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee made that “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Jai Vigyan”. Prime Minister Modi has furthered that to “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Jai Vigyan and Jai Anusandhan”, as innovation is the foundation of development," N Sitharaman added.
On focusing the slogan of 'Jai Anusandhan', N Sitharaman said, "For our tech savvy youth, this will be a golden era. A corpus of rupees one lakh crore will be established with fifty-year interest free loan. The corpus will provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or nil interest rates. This will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains. We need to have programmes that combine the powers of our youth and technology. 60. A new scheme will be launched for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes and expediting ‘atmanirbharta’."
Read More
