In his fourth budget, finance minister Arun Jaitley had a lot for rural India as well as the infrastructure sector. Budget allocation to MGNREGA increased to a record Rs 48,000 crore for 2017-18, up from Rs 37,000 crore in 2016-17. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana allocation 2017-18 will be Rs 23,000 crore, up from Rs 15,000 crore in last budget. Allocation for highways increased from Rs 57,676 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 64,000 crore in next fiscal. Rail safety fund with corpus of Rs 100,000 crore will be created over a period of five years.

Source: Hindustan Times February 01, 2017 07:35 UTC