<div><span style="line-height: 1.4;">Rahul Gandhi’s touch appeared visible in Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s Vote on Account presented in Parliament on Monday, February 17.</span></div><div> </div><div>The Congress Vice-President, who is regarded as a poster boy for youth initiatives and women’s empowerment, has been handed on a platter a lot of initiatives to talk about in his future election rallies.</div><div> </div><div>For starters, the Finance Minister allocated an additional Rs 1,000 crore to the Nirbhaya Fund for the safety and empowerment of women. What’s more, he laid down a condition of this fund being non-lapsable.</div><div> </div><div>"In order to make it clear that the (Nirbhaya) fund will be a prominent fund, I intend to declare the grant of Rs 1,000 crore as non-lapsable and in order to support more proposals, I propose to contribute to the fund another Rs 1,000 crore next year," Chidambaram said while presenting the interim budget in Parliament. </div><div> </div><div>Last year’s fund of Rs 1,000 crore dedicated to the rape victim has come under severe criticism from many circles for not being used. An RTI query by a Kochi-based lawyer D. B. Binu to the Finance Minister on how the fund had been used elicited this reply on January 1 this year and reported in The Hindu. “The funds have not been used so far as the relevant schemes are yet to be finalised,” said Amit Bansal, Under Secretary of the Economic Affairs Department of the Finance Ministry.</div><div> </div><div>Among the project proposals under the Nirbhaya fund are closed circuit TV cameras in public places, improvement of street lighting and so on.</div><div> </div><div>On the youth front, Chidambaram had two significant handouts. He announced a moratorium on interest on student loans taken before March 31, 2009 and outstanding as of December 31, 2013. This move he said would benefit 9 lakh borrowers. “The government will take over the liability of outstanding interest as on 21.12.2013, but the borrower would have to pay interest for after 1 Jan 2014,” he said.</div><div> </div><div>Several Public Sector banks face an issue of outstanding student loans.</div><div> </div><div>Chidambaram also added Rs 1,000 crore towards skills development, specifically the National Skill Certification and Monetary Reward Scheme launched last year, displaying a commitment to a programme. </div><div> </div><div>This move met with applause from the industry. Ashok Reddy - Managing Director & Co-founder, TeamLease Services, said, “The requirement to reap the demographic dividend requires the skilling effort to up the ante and giving larger fiscal support is a good thing. Many innovations and interventions are required to see what works and is scalable and requires financial support. The additional allocation is a step in the right direction. “</div><div> </div><div>Himanshu Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO Aspiring Minds, India’s largest skill assessment company, said, "It is very encouraging to see the continued commitment of the Finance minister towards the National Skill Certification scheme being implemented by the National Skills Development Corporation. The scheme has brought unprecedented momentum and vigor seldom seen in this area. The continued funding of the scheme will ensure that the skill development agenda reaches a sustainable outcome. NSDC ensures that the implementation of the scheme in inclusive, scalable and quality driven.”</div><div> </div>
_20240521153649original_image_48.webp)
