Has Modi Sarkar delivered on Budget 2014?

Fifty-six months on, the government's record in implementing these schemes and projects has been mixed, report Arup Roychoudhury and Indivjal Dhasmana.

In its first Budget presented to the Lok Sabha in July 2014, the NDA government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a number of laudable initiatives.

These included the development of 100 smart cities, the overhaul of the petroleum and food subsidies, digitisation, and a scheme for the uplift of the girl child called Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.

Fifty-six months on, the government's record in implementing these schemes and projects has been mixed.

Take, for example, the Smart Cities Mission, launched in June 2015 with the aim of developing 100 smart cities as satellite towns of larger cities and also by modernising certain existing mid-sized cities.

According to the urban affairs and housing ministry, while a total of 5,151 projects worth more than Rs 2 trillion have been identified for implementation, only 534 projects worth Rs 10,116 crore have been completed.

Digital India was yet another flagship scheme of the Modi government, which was announced in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's maiden budget.

What gave it a huge fillip was demonetisation, which forced many people to go cashless for a while.

There has been a significant growth in digital payments as a result.

In fact, the Unified Payments Interface, one of the important initiatives under Digital India, has managed transactions worth more than Rs 1.02 trillion till December 2018.

It is live in 129 banks too, and has handled over 620 million transactions.

The government has also been somewhat successful in reaching out to the tier-II and rest-of-India towns and nudging them towards digitisation.

However, the performance of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, touted as the government's mega scheme for the welfare of the girl child, has been far from satisfactory.

Less than 25 per cent of the total of Rs 644 crore allocated under it has been disbursed to districts and states.

Over 19 per cent of the funds was not released, and more than 56 per cent of it was spent merely on publicising the scheme.

To reform LPG subsidies, the government launched the Pahal scheme across the country in January 2015.

This is currently considered the largest direct cash transfer scheme in the world and benefits over 230 million consumers.

Under the scheme, LPG is sold to consumers at the market rate and the subsidy is directly credited to their bank accounts.

The direct transfer of subsidy has reduced the diversion of subsidised LPG cylinders to commercial and industrial sectors, generated significant savings and reduced the annual LPG subsidy bill.

Subsidy through direct benefit transfer (DBT) for LPG stands at Rs 20,880 crore till date, while for kerosene it is Rs 113 crore.

On food subsidy, although the NDA government expanded the National Food Security Act to cover the entire country (the previous government had partially implemented it in 13 states), the system of food subsidy itself has not been revamped.

The promise to set up four All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was partially met. While two such institutions have come up in Mangalapuri in Andhra Pradesh and Nagpur in Maharashtra, the other two -- at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath's bastion Gorakhpur and Kalyani in West Bengal -- are yet to get off the ground.

This despite the fact that the Cabinet had cleared the two projects at a cost of Rs 1,011 crore and Rs 1,754 crore respectively.

Other institutes are similarly stuck at the project stage.

The Jaya Prakash Narayan National Centre for Excellence in Humanities, which was supposed to be set up in Madhya Pradesh, is yet to fructify.

A National Centre for Excellence in Animation, Gaming and Special Effects to be set up in Mumbai has not come up either, even though the Information and Broadcasting ministry had roped in the Indian Institute of Mass Communication to oversee it.

The Maharashtra government has already allocated 20 acres for the project.

However, the news gets better when it comes to the war memorial around India Gate in the national capital.

Reported to be nearly ready, the memorial is spread over 40 acres and has four landscaped concentric circles -- Amar Chakra (circle of immortality), Veer Chakra (circle of bravery), Tyag Chakra (circle of sacrifice) and Rakshak Chakra (circle of protection).

The prime minister is likely to inaugurate it soon.

Develop 100 smart cities

151 projects worth over Rs 2 trillion identified.

534 projects worth Rs 10,116 crore completed.

Overhaul of petroleum and food subsidies

Direct transfer of LPG subsidy to consumers launched in January 2015. The scheme benefits over 230 million consumers. In April 2016, DBT was introduced in kerosene too, but it is available only in Jharkhand.

The Food Security Act was expanded across the country. But, there was no overhaul in food subsidy.

Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana

Initial allocation Rs 100 crore. Over 56% of the total allocation since 2014-15 spent on publicising the scheme

Digital India

Scheme started with allocation of Rs 500 crore. It took off after demonetisation.

The most successful Digital India initiatives was the Unified Payments Interface with transactions worth over Rs 1.02 trillion till Dec 2018.

Four AIIMS

AIIMS at Mangalagiri in Andhra Pradesh and Nagpur are fully operational. However, the AIIMS at Gorakhpur and Kalyani (West Bengal) are yet to come up.

Five more IITs

An IIT each has been set up in Jammu, Bhilai, Goa, Tirupati and Palakkad (Kerala)

Five more IIMs

An IIM each has been set up in Sirmaur (Himachal Pradesh), Amritsar, Bodhgaya, Sambalpur and Nagpur

Two agriculture and two horticulture universities

Agriculture universities was set up in Jhansi and Imphal. Also, Maharana Pratap University will be set up in Karnal (Haryana) and Konda Laxman Horticulture University in Telangana

Funding for 2,000 farmer producer organisations

NABARD has supported 4,000 FPOs by FY18, of which 2,000 are actively engaged in agricultural activities

100 mobile soil testing labs

Done

Kisan TV Channel

Set up in 2015

National Centre for Animation, Gaming and Special Effects

Yet to be set up

National Sports University

Functional from its temporary campus

Proposed to be set up in Madhya Pradesh. Has not seen light of the day.

Statue of Unity

A 182-metre statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel inaugurated by the Prime Minister in October, 2018 in Gujarat.

With additional inputs from Shine Jacob, Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Veena Mani and Subhayan Chakraborty