Union Budget 2018-19
All 83 major union budget schemes, in one beautiful chart

By Harry Stevens | 1 February, 2018

In the Union Budget 2018-19, the government cut funding for 16 schemes, including Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Most schemes, however, had their funding boosted. Search all schemes | View source [PDF] | See last year’s schemes

The government classified 83 programs as “major schemes.” From Swachh Bharat, a scheme that commits funds to cleaning the country and installing toilets, to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, which provides work to people in rural areas, the list of schemes represents some of the centre’s most important budgetary priorities.

In addition to Swachh Bharat, the government dialed back funding for the National Health Mission, despite India’s being an outlier among major economies for low health spending, with less than 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) allocated to health.

The government boosted funding for 59 schemes, including 11 schemes which saw their funding more than doubled. Among those was the Higher Education Financing Agency, whose budget was increased by an order of magnitude, from Rs 250 crore to Rs 2,750 crore. The agency invests in research infrastructure at colleges and universities.

But the biggest winner in terms of percentage increase to its budget was the National Seismic Programme, launched in 2016, which searches for untapped oil and natural gas across the country. Its funding was increased from just Rs 10 crore last year to Rs 1,300 crore this year, a 12,900% increase.

Three schemes are not included in the chart because they did not receive funding last year.

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