Union Budget 2025: Live Coverage

Manufacturing mission: furthering Make in India & commitment to clean-tech manufacturing

The government has announced plans to set up a national manufacturing mission covering small, medium, and large industries for furthering Make in India by providing policy support, execution roadmaps, governance, and monitoring framework for Central ministries and States. 

The government has reiterated its commitment to climate-friendly development by announcing that the mission will also support clean-tech manufacturing. This will aim to improve domestic value addition and build the country's ecosystem for solar PV (photovoltaic) cells, EV batteries, motors, and controllers, electrolysers, wind turbines, very high voltage transmission equipment, and grid-scale batteries. 

National institute of food tech announced

The government, in line with the commitment towards Purvodaya, is set to establish a national institute of food technology, entrepreneurship, and management in Bihar. This will provide a fillip to food processing activities in the Eastern region. This will lead to enhanced income of farmers through value addition to their produce; as well as provide skilling entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for the youth. 

Measures for the toys sectors

The government is set to build on the National Action Plan for Toys and implement a scheme that makes India a global hub for toys. The scheme will focus on development of clusters, skills, and a manufacturing ecosystem that will create high quality, unique, innovative, and sustainable toys that will represent the Made in India brand. 

Measures announced for India's footwear sector

To enhance productivity, quality, and competitiveness of India's footwear and leather sector, a focused product scheme will be implemented. The scheme will support design capacity, component manufacturing, and machinery required for production of non-leather quality footwear besides the support for leather footwear and products. The scheme is expected to facilitate employment for 22 lakh persons, generate over Rs 4 lakh crores, and exports of over Rs 1.1 lakh crores. 

Term loans announced for 5 lakh women, SC, ST first-time entrepreneurs

A new scheme will be launched for 5 lakh women, Scheduled Castes (SCs), and Scheduled Tribes (STs) first-time entrepreneurs; which will provide a term loan of Rs 2 crores during the next 5 years.

The scheme will incorporate lessons from the Stand Up India scheme, and online capacity building for entrepreneurship and managerial skills will also be organised. 

Fund of funds with expanded scope for start-ups announced

A new fund-of-funds with expanded scope and a contribution of another Rs 10 thousand crores will be set up. 

Earlier, alternate investment fund (AIFs) for start-ups have received commitment of more than Rs 91 thousand crores. They were supported by the Fund-of-Funds set-up with the Government of India's contribution of Rs 10 thousand crores. 

Customised credit cards for micro enterprises announced

Customised credit cards will be introduced for micro enterprises registered on the Udyam portal with a limit of Rs 5 lakh and 10 lakh such cards are to be issued in the first year 

Credit guarantee cover for MSMEs to be enhanced

For micro and small enterprises, credit guarantee cover will be increased from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crores, leading to additional credit of Rs 1.5 Lakh crores in the next 5 years.

For start-ups credit guarantee cover will be increased from Rs 10 crores to Rs 20 crores with a guarantee fee being moderated to 1% for loans in 27 focus sectors which are important for Atma nirbhar Bharat.

For well-run exporter MSMEs, term loans up to Rs 20 crores will be given

MSMEs being 2nd engine of growth; responsible for 45% of India's exports

Currently, over 1 crore registered MSMEs employing 7.5 crore people and generating 36 per cent of India's manufacturing has positioned India as a global manufacturing hub, the FM stated. The MSMEs are responsible for 45 per cent of India's exports to help them achieve higher efficiencies of scale, technological upgradation, and better access to capital. The investment and turnover limits for classification of all MSMEs will be enhanced to 2.5 times and 2 times respectively. This will generate employment for the country's youth

NCDCs to receive govt fillip for lending in cooperative sector

The government is set to provide support to NCDCs for its lending operations for the cooperative sector