Key Highlights of Interim Budget 2024

The Interim Budget 2024 was a reflection of past achievements and attempted to provide an impetus to India’s current optimistic trajectory. The Hon’ble Finance Minister (FM) drew attention to India’s enormous retrospective journey and projected confidence in the nation’s bright economic future. The FM presented the Interim Budget 2024-25, envisioning a digital and technology-driven nation fueled by knowledge and self-sufficiency.

Leading the nation towards a self-sufficient and inclusive economy, the Interim Budget 2024-25 intends to further advance and facilitate economic development. Banking on the solid capex outlay in the previous year's Union Budget, the nominal GDP growth is projected at 10.5% for FY 2025. Moreover, the outlay for the next year is expected to increase by 11.1% and will account for 3.4% of the GDP. The government has showcased its commitment to fiscal prudence, with the revised fiscal deficit pegged at 5.1% for FY 2025. Moreover, it aligns with the government's effort to reduce the fiscal deficit to 4.5% by FY 2026.

FDI inflow continues to witness robust momentum between 2014 and 2024, a golden era with FDI touching the USD 596 billion mark. The amount of FDI inflow during this period is twice the inflow compared to the period between 2005-2014. This comes in line with the recently announced India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor that could be a strategic and economic game changer for India.

Green energy and technology will continue to be a focus area for the government. With the intention to strengthen India’s technology prowess, the government has introduced a corpus of INR 1000 billion to provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or nil interest rates. Apart from encouraging the private sector to scale up research and innovation in sunrise domains, this move also ensures the integration of youth and technology while preparing to add another long-term win under the ‘Make In India’ initiative.