Budget 2023 doubles outlay for NE to Rs 5,892 crore

The Budget 2023 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has doubled the allocation for North East to Rs 5,892 crore for the financial year 2023-24. This 110.43% hike from Rs 2,800 crore is in line with the Indian government’s mission to develop the north eastern region of India.
Allocation towards the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North East Region (PM-DevINE) has increased over five fold from Rs 400 crore in FY23 to Rs 2,200 crore this year.
This news comes as four of the Seven Sister states from the north east of India — Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Mizoram — are headed for assembly polls in 2023.
North East Council Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Pradeep Bagla on Wednesday said that the northeastern region was set to “gain substantially” from the presented Budget, according to an IANS.
PM-DevINE was announced in the Union Budget 2022-2023 to address developmental gaps in the North Eastern region.
“It will not be a substitute for existing central or state schemes.
While the central ministries may also pose their candidate projects, priority will be given to those posed by the states,” Sitharaman had said during her Budget speech last year.
The scheme aims to support social development projects and livelihood activities for youth and women, and fund infrastructure in collaboration with the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP).
FM Sitharaman had allocated Rs 20,000 crore as total outlay for the infra-focused NMP in the 2022-2023 Union Budget with an aim of providing India improved connectivity and faster, more efficient transportation.
As of September 2022, all states had on-boarded the NMP’s comprehensive database.
Initiatives benefiting from the increased allocation to the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region include central sector schemes on the North East Council, the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme and PM-DevINE.
The ministry’s revised estimate for DoNER in FY23 remained almost unchanged from its budgeted estimate of Rs 2,755 crore.