Finance minister Arun Jaitley signalled in his budget speech on Wednesday a shift in the government’s anti-poverty strategy to ensure that flagship schemes benefit the poorest of the poor. ALSO READ | Poor will benefit most from budget 2017: Sushil Modi“Maximum emphasis in this budget has been on the farmers, villages, poor, Dalit and the underprivileged sections of the society. He stepped up the allocation for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana—Gramin (rural) from Rs15,000 crore in 2016-17 to Rs23,000 crore in 2017-18. The allocation for Scheduled Tribes was take up to Rs31,920 crore and for minority affairs to Rs4,195 crore. The SECC evolved some exclusion criteria that would determine whether a rural household was eligible for government assistance or not.

Source: Mint February 01, 2017 19:41 UTC