Budget may float 20 million more rural houses under PMAY Gramin

livemint.com:

Reuters on Wednesday reported that India plans to increase state subsidies on rural housing in the upcoming federal budget by as much as 50% from the previous year to more than $6.5 billion. “The rural development ministry has proposed to aid construction of another 20 million houses under Awas Yojana (rural) in the next five years.

A Cabinet note is being drafted and if approved by the Cabinet; it is likely to be announced in the full budget for FY25," the official cited above said on condition of anonymity. The official did not disclose the funds required for the programme.

The proposal indicates the government’s strategy to bolster rural infrastructure, including improvement to village roads and the implementation of job programmes aimed at helping millions of youths trapped in the agriculture sector amid scarce opportunities in manufacturing. Queries sent to spokespeople and secretaries of the rural development ministry and Cabinet secretariat remained unanswered at press time.

Economists and industry stakeholders have urged the Union government to ramp up allocations for rural schemes and provide a boost for housing programmes to stimulate consumer demand, since private consumption has been growing at a significantly lower rate than the nearly 8% annual economic growth. Consumption growth has remained weak since the pandemic.

Private consumption is recovering, with growth tracking at 4% in the March quarter, as against 1.5% a year ago, but it is just catching up with the pre-pandemic trend and remains below the pre-pandemic average of 6.3% in 2019. Rural India's monthly per capita household consumption, adjusted for inflation, rose over 40% between FY12 and FY23, statistics ministry data showed, though it remains