Gwalior (MP), Feb 8 (PTI) Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Saturday said the Modi government has spent Rs 11 lakh crore on infrastructure development in the last one year, while the Congress-led UPA dispensation used to spend only Rs 2 lakh crore on this front annually.

Addressing a press conference to highlight various provisions made in the recently-presented Union Budget, he said the budget will make India self-reliant and aims to establish it as a 'Vishwaguru' (world leader) by 2047.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always said that he considers poor, farmers, women and youth as the only four castes in our country, and this budget focuses on these four categories," he said.

"In the last one year, Rs 11 lakh crore have been spent on infrastructure. The UPA used to spend only Rs 2 lakh crore on this front," the Minister of Communications said.

According to him, railway lines of 2,031 km were laid and 6,000 km-long national highways were constructed in the past one year.

In the telecom sector, towers have been installed across 10,700 villages to improve connectivity, he said.

"In the past, 90 per cent phones in India used to be imported. Now, 90 per cent phones are being manufactured in India and units of Rs 1.28 lakh crore are being exported," he said.

The global growth rate is stuck at 3.2 per cent, while that of India is 6.5 per cent, Scindia added.

There was a burden of non-performing assets (NPA) on banks, which was left behind as a legacy by the Congress and the UPA government, he said.

"In 2014, the NPA was 11.5 per cent, which has now come down to 2.6 per cent," he said, adding that the NDA government has improved the financial condition of the country.

India's exports have gone up to USD 600 billion and the foreign exchange reserves are pegged at USD 705 billion. The country has the fourth largest foreign exchange reserves in the whole world, the minister said.

"There has been a 3.5 per cent growth in the agriculture sector and Madhya Pradesh has made the highest contribution, which has grown by 6.5 per cent," he said.

"Our aim is that India becomes the third largest economy by 2027," Scindia said.

India will leave behind Germany and Japan in the next two years. The target is that India will be a USD 5 trillion economy by 2028 and USD 6 trillion by 2030, he added.

Nowhere else in the world one will find an establishment like the Indian Postal Department, which has 1.64 lakh post offices and four lakh postmen. These offices will be converted into logistics centres, he said, adding that the postal departments of many countries have been studied.

Scindia said that the postal department will provide services like parcels and e-commerce.

Along with this, 2.45 lakh gram panchayats in the country are being connected through BharatNet. Currently, 2.12 lakh gram panchayats are connected and the rest will also be linked in a similar way. An amount of Rs 1.39 lakh crore has been allocated for this, he said.

BharatNet is an ambitious project of the central government to provide broadband connectivity to all village panchayats in the country.

According to Scindia, the budget has provided relief to the middle class as individuals earning up to Rs 12 lakh will not have to pay income tax. PTI COR ADU NP

Income tax relief expands to middle class, while budget prioritises infrastructure, connectivity, and postal logistics reform. The budget prioritises infrastructure and connectivity through increased spending on roads, rail and telecoms, expansion of domestic mobile manufacturing and exports, conversion of the postal network into parcel and e commerce logistics centres, and completion of BharatNet to link remaining gram panchayats with a dedicated allocation; it also includes a middle class personal taxation measure providing income tax exemption up to a designated threshold.