Union Budget 2023: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced the union budget 2023-24. Sitharaman announced various programmes to pertaining to healthcare, pharmaceuticals and medical devices segments.
Here are the key takeaways:
- 157 new nursing colleges will be established in colocation with the existing 157 medical colleges established since 2014.
- 220 crore COVID-19 vaccines for 102 crore people given.
- A Mission to eliminate Sickle-Cell Anaemia by 2047 will be established. There will be screening of 7 crore people in 0-40 years age group in affected tribal areas. The government is on a mission to eradicate the disease, Sitharaman said.
- A new programme for research in pharmaceuticals will be formulated and the industry will be encourage to invest in research.
- Facilities in select ICMR labs will be made available for research by public and private medical facilities
- Dedicated multidisciplinary courses for medical devices will be supported in existing institutions to ensure availability of skilled manpower for futuristic medical technologies, high-end manufacturing and research.
- Leading industry players will partner in conducting inter-disciplinary research, develop cutting-edge applications and scalable problem solutions in the areas of agriculture, health and sustainable cities.
- Three Centres of Excellences of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be set up to in top educational institutions, leading industry players will partner in conducting interdisciplinary research, develop cutting edge applications and scalable problem solutions in the areas of health, agriculture and sustainable system.
Last year, the government proposes to spend Rs 39,44,909 crore in 2022-23, which is an increase of 4.6% over the revised estimate of 2021-22. In 2021-22, total expenditure is estimated to be 8.2% higher than the budget estimate. In 2022, among the top 13 ministries with the highest allocations, in 2022-23, the highest percentage increase in allocation is observed in the Ministry of Communications (93%), followed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (52%), and the Ministry of Jal Shakti (25%). Of these, the Ministry of Defence has the highest allocation in 2022-23, at Rs 5,25,166 crore. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was allocated Rs. 86,201 crore in 2022-23.
Last year, Union Minister Sitharaman announced that Under Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, an open platform for National Digital Health Ecosystem was established and National Tele Mental Health Programme was launched.
