Service tax on hospital services expanded to centrally air conditioned hospitals meeting bed threshold; abatement reduces effective tax burden.
Service tax now applies to services provided by centrally air conditioned hospitals that meet a specified bed threshold, replacing the earlier tax limited to health check ups and treatment; diagnostic tests are included, government hospitals are excluded, and an abatement is provided to reduce the effective tax burden.

Service tax on air travel increased, raising domestic and international economy class charges and aligning higher-class domestic rates.
The Union Budget increases the service tax on air travel by raising the charge for domestic economy travel and increasing the levy on international economy journeys, while treating higher-class domestic travel at the standard service tax rate to align it with higher-class international travel.

National Food Security Bill proposed to establish legal food entitlements while government emphasises inclusive development and social sector investment.
The Government announced imminent introduction of the National Food Security Bill, describing it as near-final following consultations with stakeholders and state governments, and presenting it within a broader budgetary emphasis on inclusive development and increased Social Sector allocations to support rights-based schemes such as the Right to Work, Right to Information and Right to Education.

National Mission for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles to prompt regulatory reform and boost manufacturing competitiveness.
A National Mission for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles will be launched with stakeholder collaboration to advance adoption and manufacturing; an interministerial Group of Ministers will recommend time bound changes to statutes, rules, regulations and guidelines to reconcile environmental concerns from departmental activities. A Manufacturing Policy will seek to raise manufacturing's GDP share through reduced compliance and self regulation to improve global competitiveness, and capital investment in fertilizer production will be included as an infrastructure sub sector.

Earmarked allocations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Sub-Plans to be shown under separate minor heads, enhancing transparency.
Allocations for the Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan must be shown separately in Ministries' and Departments' budgets under distinct minor heads to enable identification and tracking of targeted expenditures. The Budget also increases resources for primitive tribal groups and introduces a pre-matric scholarship scheme for needy SC/ST students in classes nine and ten, projected to benefit about forty lakh students.

Tax-free infrastructure bonds expand funding for government undertakings and support project financing and disbursement targets.
The Budget channels a substantial portion of plan support to infrastructure and authorises issuance of tax-free bonds by government undertakings to mobilise long-term project finance. A government financing intermediary is assigned a cumulative disbursement target and operates a take-out financing scheme with specified project sanctions and further sanctioning planned, combining bond issuance with intermediary refinancing to advance infrastructure projects.

Indexation of MGNREGA wages to agricultural labour CPI strengthens real wage protection after government wage-rate notification.
Indexation of notified MGNREGA wage rates to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour creates a mechanism to adjust statutory rural employment wages with agricultural inflation; implemented by government notification in January 2011, it operationalises the real wage objective for beneficiaries and institutionalises periodic wage-rate adjustments.

National Knowledge Network connectivity announced to link all higher education and research institutes via optical-fiber backbone.
Announcement establishing a nationwide connectivity initiative under the National Knowledge Network to link all designated institutions of higher learning and research via an optical-fiber backbone, with an implementation objective to complete connections by March 2012 and an intermediate rollout of a subset of institutes during the current budget year.

Vegetable cluster initiative to strengthen supply chains and market linkages, supporting farmer productivity and incomes near urban centres.
The Vegetable Cluster Initiative aims to strengthen supply chains and market linkages for vegetables to raise productivity, ensure quality produce at competitive prices, and increase farmer incomes through integrated cluster formation, improved post-harvest handling, aggregation, logistics and market access, with initial implementation focused near major urban centres and supported by a targeted budgetary provision.

Education allocation increase directs more central funding for basic education and launches vocationalisation of secondary education scheme.
A budgetary increase for education directs additional central resources to the basic education programme Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and mandates implementation of a revised Centrally Sponsored Scheme, Vocationalisation of Secondary Education, to integrate vocational training into secondary schooling and enhance youth employability through the central funding and scheme framework.

RKVY allocation increased to strengthen agricultural production and tackle supply chain bottlenecks through targeted budget measures.
The Budget increases allocation under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to strengthen agricultural production and to remove production and distribution bottlenecks for fruits, vegetables and poultry. It reinforces a four pronged strategy emphasising production enhancement, reduction of post harvest wastage, credit support to farmers, and thrust to the food processing sector to consolidate programme outcomes.

Rural Broadband Connectivity expansion to deliver internet access to all panchayats under central allocation and phased rollout.
Central budgetary support for the Bharat Nirman package is increased to strengthen six flagship rural programmes and sustain inclusive development. A national plan is announced to provide Rural Broadband Connectivity to all panchayats through a phased rollout, linking central funding to implementation of broadband infrastructure and integration with rural telephony and digital inclusion objectives.

Remuneration increase for Anganwadi workers and helpers raises monthly pay and expands income support for beneficiaries nationwide.
Enhancement of remuneration for Anganwadi personnel increases monthly pay for frontline workers under the Integrated Child Development Services scheme. The central budgetary announcement raises the monthly stipend for Anganwadi workers and for Anganwadi helpers as a direct income-support measure, effective from the commencement of the fiscal period specified in the announcement, and extends improved compensation to the broad cohort of registered workers and helpers.

Agricultural credit expansion with enhanced interest subvention to lower borrowing costs and boost lending to small farmers.
Union budget proposals raise the agricultural credit target and direct banks to increase direct lending to agriculture, prioritising small and marginal farmers. The existing interest subvention scheme for short term crop loans is continued with an enhanced additional subvention to lower effective interest rates for eligible borrowers. The government proposes phased capital infusion into the national rural refinancing institution and a contribution to a Short Term Rural Credit Fund to enable concessional refinance of cooperative credit institutions and Regional Rural Banks, funded from shortfalls in priority sector lending.

Livestock development funding expands protein supplement mission and fodder programme to boost animal-based production and availability.
Two initiatives strengthen animal-based food production and fodder supply: the National Mission for Protein Supplements to promote animal-based protein via livestock development-including dairy farming, piggery, goat rearing and fisheries in selected blocks-and the Accelerated Fodder Development Programme to boost fodder production and ensure year round availability through intensive technology promotion in targeted villages.

Audit relief for small service taxpayers proposed: exemption from audit formalities and reduced interest on delayed payments.
Proposal to relieve small individual and sole proprietor service taxpayers from audit formalities when turnover does not exceed a specified threshold, removing on site audit requirements for eligible assesses; additionally proposes a three percentage point reduction in interest charged on delayed service tax payments for those taxpayers.

Housing finance liberalisation expands subsidised loan eligibility and establishes mortgage guarantee and registry to curb multiple lending.
The interest subvention scheme is liberalised to cover larger housing loans and higher cost dwellings and the priority sector lending cap for urban units is raised to widen concessional financing access. Rural Housing Fund allocations are increased to support targeted competitive housing finance. A Mortgage Risk Guarantee Fund will guarantee loans for Economically Weaker Sections and Low Income Group households to enhance creditworthiness. A Central Electronic Registry is to be established under the securitisation framework to prevent multiple lending on the same immovable property and curb related frauds.

Priority sector lending targets increased to bolster credit to minority communities and MSME refinancing incentives announced.
Budget increases refinancing allocation to expand bank credit to MSMEs and provides a dedicated allocation to relieve indebted handloom weaver cooperatives, while raising outstanding priority sector lending to minority communities and directing banks to accelerate achievement of the higher lending target.

Production support for millet farmers: market-linked budgetary assistance aimed at boosting nutri-cereal cultivation and rural outreach.
A budgetary program provides a financial allocation to promote production of nutri-cereals (bajra, jowar, ragi and other millets) by offering market-linked production support to millet farmers in arid and semi-arid regions, implemented through concentrated interventions across designated development blocks covering about twenty-five thousand villages to reach large numbers of smallholder producers.

Rural infrastructure funding boost expands RIDF corpus and dedicates additional allocation to warehousing facilities, strengthening rural storage capacity.
The Union Budget increases the corpus of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), with the additional allocation expressly dedicated to creation of warehousing facilities and directed to routine bank funds used to finance rural infrastructure projects.