Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and West Bengal are focus states as India aims to become developed nation

New Delhi [India], February 1 : The central government will focus especially on five eastern states - Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and West Bengal - so that they can become the growth engine of the country, as it wishes to emerge as a developed nation in its 100th year of Independence.
"When I talk about the eastern region, I am talking about Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and West Bengal, and making sure that they become the engines of growth for the new Amrit Kaal that we are trying to use as a bridge, leading towards Viksit Bharat at 2047," Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a post-Budget presser on Thursday.
"We intend to make sure that the eastern region, and when I say the eastern region I am not talking about the northeast. Northeast will get the attention they have been getting all the while, they will continue to get it and they will be on top of our priority," she further said.
India intends to become a developed nation by 2047, a blueprint for which is being scripted in its Amrit Kaal.
The five states that were mentioned are somewhat laggards when it comes to economic growth, public infrastructure, employment, industries, and various other social indicators. Three of those - Odisha, Jharkhand, and West Bengal--are run by non-BJP parties.
A majority of the aspirational districts are in the eastern states of India.
Meanwhile, the interim Budget, tabled today, will take care of the financial needs of the intervening period until a government is formed after the Lok Sabha polls after which a full budget will be presented by the new government in July.
The government proposes to increase capital expenditure outlay by 11.1 per cent to Rs 11.11 lakh crore in 2024-25, amounting to 3.4 per cent of the GDP, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday in her interim Budget, ahead of the General elections. A capital expenditure, or capex, is used to set up long-term physical or fixed assets.
Coming to the fiscal deficit, the government pegged for 2024-25 at 5.1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). In 2023-24, the government pegged the fiscal deficit target for 2023-24 at 5.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Today, Sitharaman said that the fiscal deficit of 2023-24 was downwardly revised to 5.8 per cent.
The government intends to bring the fiscal deficit below 4.5 per cent of GDP by the financial year 2025-26. Sitharaman said the government is on track to meet the glide path that it had set in 2021-22.
Further, as expected and for relief to citizens, the central government neither tweaked nor put any additional tax burden on them.