Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Union Budget 2023-24 earlier today on February 1.
The Union Budget was described as the first budget of 'Amrit Kaal.' The vision is to build a "technology-driven and a knowledge-based economy with strong public finances and a robust financial sector."
Amidst the direct and indirect taxes, people have always had their eyes on one sector, the healthcare sector. The healthcare sector has been in the spotlight for the last three years due to COVID. It was the first Union budget after COVID became endemic in India.
However, that does not mean that healthcare won't be a priority.
157 new nursing colleges will be established in co-location with the existing 157 medical colleges established since 2014.
A mission to eliminate Sickle Cell Anaemia will be launched by 2047. It will include awareness creation, universal screening of 7 crore people in the age group of 0-40 years in affected tribal areas, and counseling through collaborative efforts of Central ministries and State governments.
Facilities in select ICMR labs will be made available for research by public and private medical college faculty and private sector Research and Development (R&D) teams for encouraging collaborative research and innovation.
A new programme to promote research and innovation in pharmaceuticals will be taken up through centers of excellence. The pharmaceutical industry will be encouraged to invest in research and development in specific priority areas.
Multidisciplinary courses for medical devices will be supported in existing institutions to ensure the availability of skilled manpower for futuristic medical technologies, high-end manufacturing, and research.
The Government launched the Aspirational Blocks Programme covering 500 blocks for saturation of essential government services across multiple domains which include health, nutrition, water resources, etc.
Pradhan Mantri Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) Development Mission will be launched. The main goal is to provide PVTG families with facilities like health, clean drinking water, sanitation, nutrition, etc.
Urban sanitation - All cities and towns will be enabled for 100% mechanical desludging of sewers and septic tanks to transition from manhole to machine-hole mode.
Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence - Three centres of excellence for Artificial Intelligence will be set up in top educational institutions. Leading industry players will partner in conducting interdisciplinary research, developing cutting-edge applications, and scalable problem solutions in the areas which include health.
The budget allocation to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been of ₹89,155 crores. It marks an increase of around 3.5% from Budget Estimates (BE) 2022-23.