It shows the Govt’s willingness to be out of business and put on the bootstraps on delivering services

There are many firsts to this Union Budget. It was the first paperless Budget in the history of India and the Bahi Khata was replaced by a tablet. It was the first Budget to be presented by a full-time woman Finance Minister (FM) three years in a row and it was the most challenging policy document to be attempted in the history of India coming out, after a once-in-a-century pandemic. All this aside, the Budget shows the willingness of the Government to be out of business and put on the bootstraps on delivering services to citizens.

The increased allocation for healthcare fills an important gap left by years of neglect. The FM has got her bearings right in releasing the potential of modern and emerging technology in keeping the sovereign safe, future war-ready and taking giant strides in value creation for human lives, not to mention the life-saving potential, as reflected in the development of vaccines for a novel virus. It would have been a great moral booster if technology-aided healthcare would have found mention in the Budget. While it does mention support for 28,812 urban and rural health and wellness centres, it is unclear about the contours. These touchpoints of primary health services are vital links in the wellness chain as they are the first to feel the pulse of any emerging pandemic or life-threatening conditions. They are also important data nodes on the condition of sanitation and purity, including the presence of toxic metals in drinking water and nutrition levels of people. The enhanced health expenditure recognises the multidisciplinary approach to people’s health needs but fails to join them together on a digital platform.

It is strange that even though former TRAI Chairman RS Sharma has taken charge at the National Health Authority to head the flagship ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme and will be leading the rollout of the national digital health mission with data privacy, these words, which will define new-era healthcare did not find a mention in the Budget speech.

It may be that the FM wanted to keep the focus on the increased healthcare spends rather than diverting attention to issues which may have resulted in precious time being lost on endless debates on privacy vs the right to good health. It would have been good if she had at least referred to connecting thousands of primary and tertiary healthcare centres in urban and rural India on a digital platform with a robust answerable guided policy framework. There was also an expectation of providing the much-needed policy fillip to healthcare for non-life-threatening ailments, using technology. Taken with the emerging spurt of electronic pharmacies, these are not just efficient and effective solutions to healthcare for a geographically vast country like ours but also a great source of jobs for semi-skilled professionals. If India needs to be the “e-pharmacy” of the world the change would have to start now.

Finally, the much-discussed disinvestment process which has been met with the expected euphoria in the stock markets, though, it is spoken about with extremely cautious optimism in closed circles. The reason is best illustrated by the example of Air India which has been on the block for as long as the current Government has been in power. It is a bold initiative to announce the sale of two banks and one general insurance company together with a bunch of large PSUs. But it is tough to actually see the sale go through. The reason being that these PSUs employ thousands, who over the years have organised themselves into powerful unions/pressure blocks with certain entitlements. Any threat to status quo of entitlements would mean these powerful groups are easy picks for opposing political blocs to take advantage of and make a grand show of protest to be played out for social media audience. No amount of talks with senior influencers would convince a group lured by a reward of assured income along with digital media publicity. That is where the sharp negotiators and politicians have to come in to persuade sale to strategic investors for survival. It is not an easy job and heavy lifting by various arms of the Government along with private sector support are what will make Budget 21-22 the best one of the decade.

(The writer is a policy analyst. The views expressed are personal.)