Interim Budget: ‘GDP’, ‘FDI’ have a bold, new meaning for Nirmala Sitharaman

As Nirmala Sitharaman presented Budget 2024, the finance minister redefined GDP (Gross domestic product) as governance, development and performance. Nirmala said the government is equally focused on governance, development and performance. Another reinterpretation that Nirmala Sitharaman came up with was FDI – First Develop India.

This is a more comprehensive GDP that the government is focused on, the minister said as she presented the last budget of the Modi government's second term. “Our government has provided transparent, accountable, people-centric and prompt trust-based administration with ‘citizen-first’ and ‘minimum government, maximum governance’ approach,” Sitharaman said explaining the new full form of GDP.

Budget 2024: Full coverage

“The FDI inflow during 2014-23 was $596 billion marking a golden era. That is twice the inflow during 2005-14. For encouraging sustained foreign investment, we are negotiating bilateral investment treaties with our foreign partners, in the spirit of ‘first develop India’,” Sitharaman said offering a new explanation of FDI.

As many as 1.4 crore youth were trained and upskilled under the Skill India Mission, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while presenting the interim Budget on Thursday.

The mission focuses on skilling, re-skilling and upskilling through short-term and long-term training programmes.

Under the mission, the government, through more than 20 central ministries/departments, is implementing various skill development schemes across the country. She also said there is a macro-economic stability and the country's economy is doing well.

The main four sections that are of importance to the government are poor, women, youth and farmers, the minister said. The government is focussing on addressing systemic inequalities, she said, adding that the emphasis is on outcomes so that socio-economic transformation is achieved. "We focus on outcomes and not outlays," Sitharaman said.