Union Budget: Emphasis on urban development

New Delhi, Feb 01: While presenting Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament today, Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to form a high-level committee of reputed urban planners, urban economists and institutions to make recommendations on urban sector policies, capacity building, planning, implementation and governance to steer a paradigm change.

Smt. Sitharaman said that urban planning cannot continue with a business-as-usual approach as by the time India is @100, nearly half our population is likely to be living in urban areas. To prepare for this, orderly urban development is of critical importance as this will help realise the country's economic potential, including livelihood opportunities for the demographic dividend. For this, on the one hand we need to nurture the megacities and their hinterlands to become current centres of economic growth. On the other hand, we need to facilitate tier 2 and 3 cities to take on the mantle in the future.

The Finance Minister stated that we need to reimagine India's cities into centres of sustainable living with opportunities for all, including women and youth.