In a bid to strengthen India’s nutritional delivery and outcomes, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced that the government will merge supplementary nutrition programmes and Poshan Abhiyan to launch Mission Poshan 2.0.

She also said the key focus of Mission Poshan 2.0 will be to improve nutritional outcomes in 112 aspirational districts.

The government is also set to launch Jal Jeevan Mission Urban with an outlay of ₹2.87 lakh crore over five years to ensure universal water supply in all 4378 urban bodies with 2.86 crore household tap connections and liquid waste management in 5,000 AMRUT cities.

In the education space, she said that more than 15,000 schools will be qualitatively strengthened under the National Education Policy 2020 and they will hand-hold and mentor other schools to achieve the ideals of the policy. She also said that over 100 new Sainik Schools will be set up in partnerships with NGOs including private schools and state board schools.

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Setting up of a Central University in Leh is also on the cards, she added.

In addition, the Government will introduce legislation this year to set up the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) in India, as earlier outlined in the new education policy. This will be an umbrella body that will look into standards, accreditation, regulation and funding in the higher education space.

In addition, 750 Eklavaya Model Residential Schools will be set up in tribal areas, she further announced.

The Finance Minister also said that Urban Swacch Bharat Mission 2.0 will be implemented with a total financial allocation of ₹1,41,678 crore over 5 years from 2021. She said it will focus on complete fecal sludge management, waste water treatment, source segregation, management of waste from urban construction and bioremediation of legacy dump sites.

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