Multiple budget proposals related to tourism, infrastructure, ports, construction and technology are expected to create more employment in these sectors.

“States will be encouraged to take up comprehensive development of iconic tourist centres, branding and marketing them at global scale… Tourism, including spiritual tourism, has tremendous opportunities for local entrepreneurship,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech. The government also aims to increase diversity in formal and informal sectors.

Since the pandemic, there has been a surge in domestic tourism; and the addition of air routes and port connectivity is expected to create more jobs. “To address the emerging fervour for domestic tourism, projects for port connectivity, tourism infrastructure and amenities will be taken up on our islands, including Lakshadweep. This will help in generating employment also,” the finance minister said.

The budget proposes an 11% increase in infrastructure capex in FY25 to ₹11.11 trillion, which is estimated to generate formal and informal jobs.

“Despite it being an interim budget, there is a push in the logistics and infrastructure space. The boost in religious and business tourim will lead to more employment in the hospitality sector. The construction of two crore houses under PM Awas Yojana (Grameen) will help in the construction sector,” said Lohit Bhatia, president of workforce management at business services provider Quess Corp. Investment in sunrise sectors and deep tech will help establish more chip-making prowess for which high-skilled employees are needed, Bhatia added.

“For our tech-savvy youth, this will be a golden era. A corpus of ₹1 lakh crore will be established with a 50-year interest-free loan. The corpus will provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or nil interest rates. This will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains,” the finance minister said.