India 2018

224 India 2018
Vote on Account and pass a single Appropriation Bill for 2017-18, before the
close of the current financial year. This enabled the ministries and departments
to operationalise all schemes and projects, including the new schemes, right
from the commencement of the next financial year. They would be able to fully
utilise the available working season before the onset of the monsoon. Second,
the merger of the Railways Budget with the General Budget was a historic step.
The colonial practice prevalent since 1924 was discontinued. This decision
brought the Railways to the centre stage of Government's fiscal policy and
facilitated multi modal transport planning between railways, highways and
inland waterways. The functional autonomy of Railways will, however,
continue. Third, the plan and non-plan classification of expenditure has been
done away with. This will give a holistic view of allocations for sectors and
ministries and would facilitate optimal allocation of resources.
Social Sector Programmes
The Seven flagship programmes continue to receive high priority, viz.
SarvaSikshaAbhiyan; Mid-Day Meal Scheme; National Health Mission;
Integrated Child Development Services; Swachh Bharat Abhiyan; Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and 100 Smart Cities.
Direct Benefit Transfer
Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) is a major reform initiative launched by
Government of India in 2013 to provide an overarching vision and direction to
enable direct cash transfer of benefits under various government schemes and
programmes to individuals. Leveraging the gains in the Aadhaar Project, DBT
was conceived with the objective of accurately targeting the intended
beneficiaries and enhancing efficiency, transparency and accountability in
delivery of benefits/services under government schemes. The mandate of DBT
was universalized and extended to cover all central sector schemes and centrally
sponsored schemes that have any component of cash benefit transfer to
individual beneficiaries. Further, the scope of DBT has been further expanded
to include in kind transfers to beneficiaries as well as transfers/ honorariums
given to various enablers of Government schemes like ASHA, Aanganwadi
workers, etc., and not limited to cash transfers to beneficiaries only. DBT has
shown promising results in schemes like Pahal (modified DBTL for LPG
subsidy), cash subsidy for public distribution system (PDS) in Puduchery,
Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) across the country.
The large scale implementation of DBT across the country requires placing of
new mechanisms, re-engineering of Government processes and appropriate
distribution of authority, responsibility and financial resources for delivery of
public benefits/services.