Budget 2023: Jan Vishwas Bill to further trust-based governance, says FM Sitharaman

New Delhi [India], February 1 : Presenting the Union Budget 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday told Lok Sabha that for furthering trust-based governance, the government has introduced the Jan Vishwas Bill to amend 42 Central Acts.
This was the third time in a row that the government presented the budget in a paperless form. This was the last full-fledged Budget of the Modi government in its second term as the country is scheduled to have the next Lok Sabha elections in April-May 2024.
Finance Minister tabled the Union Budget 2023 in Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Speaking in Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said, "For enhancing the ease of doing business, more than 39,000 compliances have been reduced and more than 3,400 legal provisions have been decriminalized. For furthering the trust-based governance, we have introduced the Jan Vishwas Bill to amend 42 Central Acts."
She said the Budget proposes a series of measures to unleash the potential of our economy.
Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sitharaman said 'Good Governance' is the key to a nation's progress. "Our government is committed to providing a transparent and accountable administration which works for the betterment and welfare of the common citizen."
Through property tax governance reforms and ring-fencing user charges on urban infrastructure, the Minister said cities will be incentivized to improve their creditworthiness for municipal bonds.
To unleash innovation and research by start-ups and academia, a National Data Governance Policy will be brought out. This will enable access to anonymized data, informed the Finance Minister.
Sitharaman said to improve bank governance and enhance investors' protection, certain amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, the Banking Companies Act and the Reserve Bank of India Act are proposed.
"To unleash innovation and research by start-ups and academia, a National Data Governance Policy will be brought out. This will enable access to anonymized data," she said.
The Finance Minister also announced that an Entity DigiLocker will be set up for use by MSMEs, large businesses and charitable trusts for storing and sharing documents online securely, whenever needed, with various authorities, regulators, banks and other business entities.
Anonymisation is a data processing technique that removes or modifies personally identifiable information; it results in anonymised data that cannot be associated with any one individual.
On fifth-generation mobile system (5G) services, Sitharaman also announced that one hundred labs for developing applications using 5G services will be set up in engineering institutions to realize a new range of opportunities, business models, and employment potential. "The labs will cover, among others, applications such as smart classrooms, precision farming, intelligent transport systems, and health care applications," she added.
During the Budget, FM Sitharaman also announced that the government will establish three centres of artificial intelligence (AI) at institutions with the help of private players in the industry.
As part of the National Data Governance Policy framework, a platform will be designed which will process requests and provide access to non-personal and/or anonymized datasets to Indian researchers and start-ups.