Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri-Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is the largest publicly funded health insurance scheme in the world that provides coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. 

Till December 27 last year, 55 crore people belonging to 12 crore families were covered under the scheme. 

While presenting the interim Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said it is the government's priority to adequately and timely finance MSMEs.

Capital spending for 2024-25 raised by 11 per cent to Rs 11.11 lakh crore or 3.4 per cent of GDP.

Three major railway corridors, including for cement, to be constructed.

Govt to promote public and private investment in post-harvesting agriculture activities. 

New scheme to be launched for strengthening deep-tech technology for defence sector.

She outlined the strategy for 'Amrit Kaal' while presenting the interim Budget 2024-25. 

The finance minister also said the recently announced India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor will be a game changer for India. 

She noted that the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has created a robust gateway for flow of overseas capital.

Fund of Funds, Startup India and Startup Credit Guarantee Schemes are assisting our youth, she points out.

Presenting the interim Budget 2024-25, Sitharaman also said minimum support prices for 'Annadata' (farmers) have been increased periodically and appropriately. 

She asserted that for the government, social justice is an effective and necessary model. 

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. Poor, women, youth and farmers are four castes for the government, she added.

Making instant talaq illegal, reserving one-third legislative seats for women highlight our government's women empowerment programme, she says.

Skill India Mission has trained and upskilled 1.4 crore youth in the country, she adds.

The  PM JANMAN Yojana reaches out to particularly vulnerable tribal groups and PM Vishakarma Yojana provides end to end support to artisans and craftspeople.

The scheme for empowerment of divyang and transgender people reflects our resolve to leave no one behind, Sitharaman says.

Crop insurance is given to 4 crore farmers under PM Fasal Bima Yojana These are assisting farmers in producing food for the country and for the world, she points out,

When the poor became empowered partners in development process, government's power to assist them increases manifold. In the last 10 years, the government has assisted 25 crore people to get freedom from multidimensional poverty, she points out.

All four require and receive government support, their empowerment and well being will drive the country forward, says Sitharaman.

With a whole of nation approach, the country overcame challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, took long strides towards Aatma Nirbhar Bharat and laid solid foundations for Amrit Kaal, she says.

In 2014, the country was facing enormous challenges, the government overcame those challenges and undertook structural reforms, pro people reforms were undertaken, conditions for jobs and entrepreneurship were set in, fruits of development started reaching people at scale, country got a sense of new purpose and hope, she says.

She will equal the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. 

Sitharaman, the first full-time woman finance minister of the country, has presented five full budgets since July 2019 and will present an interim or vote-on-account budget on Thursday. 

With this, she will surpass the records of her predecessors like Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram, and Yashwant Sinha, who had presented five budgets in a row. 

Desai, as finance minister, had presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959 and 1964. The interim budget 2024-25 will be a vote-on-account that will give the government authority to spend certain sums of money till a new government comes to office after the April-May general elections.

She posed for the traditional 'briefcase' picture outside her office, along with her team of officials, before heading to meet the President. 

She was holding a tablet instead of a briefcase to present the Budget in a digital format. With the tablet carefully kept inside a red cover with a golden-coloured national emblem embossed on it instead of the briefcase, she went straight to Parliament after meeting President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan. 

Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman Finance Minister, had in July 2019 ditched the colonial legacy of a Budget briefcase for the traditional 'bahi-khata' to carry Union Budget papers. She used the same in the following year, and in a pandemic-hit 2021, she swapped traditional papers with a digital tablet for carrying her speech and other Budget documents. 

That tradition has continued on Thursday.