Budget announcements on deep-tech, startups to boost India's innovation-led economy: DPIIT Secretary

New Delhi: Announcements in the interim Budget 2024-25 with regard to deep-tech and startups will significantly help boost India's innovation-led economy, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said on Friday.

Singh said the 11 per cent increase in capital expenditure (capex) to Rs 11.11 lakh crore for the next financial year, and the provision to provide Rs 75,000 crore as interest-free loan for 50 years to support reforms by states, will help further improve the country's logistics efficiency, connectivity and cut down the logistics cost.

Provisions related to research and development "hopefully trigger some greater private sector investments in R&D. Announcement of a new scheme for strengthening deep-tech technologies is good for startups also... It will give a boost to India's increasingly becoming an innovation led economy," Singh told PTI.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a Rs 11.11 lakh crore spending on infrastructure and vowed to continue reforms as she resisted resorting to populist measures in the Modi government's last Budget before general elections, instead choosing to stay on the path of cutting deficit while bolstering measures for focus groups.

Spending on infrastructure such as roads, ports, and airports has been raised 11 per cent to Rs 11.1 lakh crore in a bid to sustain the current economic growth and create more jobs. The Union government will also provide Rs 1.3 lakh crore long-term loans to states to spend on infrastructure.

Also, private and public investments will be promoted in post-harvest activities, including modern storage and supply chains, in addition to boosting self-reliance on oilseeds.

All this while sticking to the fiscal consolidation path, which will see the fiscal deficit being reduced to 5.1 per cent of GDP in 2024-25 as compared to the revised deficit estimate of 5.8 per cent for the current financial year.

The Union government will provide Rs 75,000 crore as interest-free loan for 50 years to support reforms by states for realising the vision of 'Viksit Bharat'. The government has set a vision to make India a developed nation by 2047.

"It will have a good impact, 11 per cent is a very good hike. This will further improve our logistics efficiency and connectivity and ultimately lower the logistics cost," Singh said.

"The USP of the Budget is the combination of fiscal consolidation but continued focus on capex and on hard infrastructure such as roads, highways and railways," he added.