India Hopes to Revive the Economy with Its New Budget

India's government unveiled a new budget aimed at reviving its pandemic-battered economy, with a focus on vaccinations and doubling on health care spending.

India's economy shrank by the astonishing 23.9 per cent in the first quarter of last year and is projected to record its worst-ever annual recession - a contraction of 7.7 per cent - in the current financial year ending March 31.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told parliament that the government is fully prepared to support and facilitate the economy's reset. He claimed that the budget provides enough opportunities for India economy to race and capture the pace that it needs for a sustainable growth.

"Now, just as it happened after the two World Wars, there are signs that the political, economic and strategic relations in the post-Covid world are changing. This moment in history is the dawn of a new era, one in which India is well-poised to truly be the land of promise and hope," she added.

The government will allocate 30.6 billion dollars toward health care spending, marking an increase of 137 per cent, Sitharaman said. This was a big boost for India's health sector that is often neglected with public health expenditures at just 1.3 per cent of its domestic product (GDP).

A new federal scheme will be launched with an outlay of about 8.8 billion dollars to upgrade health care infrastructure at the primary, secondary and tertiary level over the next six years.

Sitharaman also committed 4.81 billion dollars to developing vaccines as well as for the vaccination programme, adding that two further Indian vaccines were likely to be announced this year.

India has the world's second largest coronavirus caseload after the United States, with a total of more than 10...