This year’s budget has been lauded for its bold steps in boosting expenditures to stimulate economic recovery from the shock of the pandemic. The effectiveness of the stimulus is determined by the composition of the additional budgetary spending. At a granular level, this budget falls short in two key areas of spending. The first is the agricultural sector. The allocation under agricultural research and education has increased only marginally from the budget estimate of 2020-21 by Rs 151 crore while the allocation for agriculture, cooperation and farmers’ welfare has fallen by Rs 10,000 crore from last year’s budget estimate. As far as rural employment is concerned, there has been a cut in the budget allocation for 2021-22 from the revised estimate for 2020-21 by Rs 38,500 crore. Another area where the axe has fallen heavily is education. On the revenue expenditure side, the total allocation for general and technical education has fallen by Rs 36 crore compared to the budget estimate of 2020-21. In the capital account, the allocation under education, arts, sports and culture has fallen by Rs 2,217 crore compared to the budget estimate of 2020-21. The allocation for health research has been pruned by 34.4 per cent compared to the revised estimate for 2020-21. The total budgetary allocation for the ministry of education has fallen by 6.13 per cent of the budgetary allocation made during 2020-21.

Agriculture has the potential to generate incomes and livelihoods, which help in the recovery process. Rural employment generation is of critical significance at the current moment. Food and fertilizer subsidies have gone up though. However, these do not directly contribute to employment and income generation. On the other hand, the implications for education and research are entirely different. These affect the quality of life and the productivity of the labour force in years to come. The results of what is being done now will only be felt a decade later. Education and employment form two important pillars of a nation. Any neglect can be costly in more senses than one.