Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today applauded the Union budget 2025 of cabinet colleague Nirmala Sitharaman, saying it is a dream budget that balances a focus on macro issues including investment and the interests of the middle class. The budget, he said, has "given a fillip to demand" by giving the middle class more money n their hands and "kept the pace of investment very steady".
Asked about the Rs 500 crore investment on Artificial investment and whether the country is ready for it, the minister who also handles the IT portfolio, said it was "very important" to get the complete facility so researchers, academicians, and startups "all get the opportunity to use those GPUs which are state-of-the-art".
"Against 10 lakh, we have 18l lakh high end things and we have started to work on the foundational model," he said.
Research, the minister said, is going to be a very important part of technology. "We have seen the algorhythmic efficiency which deep seekers have brought in. Our talent is really good and researchers will bring in innovations in the coming days," he added.
Ms Sitharaman's eighth budget had schemes for the MSME sector, women, farmers, the education sector and a big relief for the middle class in the form of income tax rebates which turned out to the biggest talking point.
Among other things, the government will set up a new centre of excellence for Artificial Intelligence for education with an outlay of Rs 500 crore, the Finance Minister said. To boost talent the government has also planned credit-linked skilling initiatives, apprenticeship programmes, and higher education infrastructure.
