Budget 2022: Space gets ₹6,000 crore as India pushes Gaganyaan, missions to Sun, Venus

Source : India Today

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The Ministry of Science & Technology was allocated ₹14,217.46 crore for the Financial Year 2022-23 in the Budget laid out by Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman on Tuesday. The allocation is ₹833 crore more than FY 2021-22 figures, which was at ₹13,438 crore. The figures were released by the Finance Ministry as part of its budget estimates for the new financial year.

The ₹14,217.46 crore budget has been divided between the Department of Science and Technology, under which the Indian space programme is conducted, the Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

The Department of Science and Technology has received the biggest chunk of the allocations with ₹6,000 crore earmarked for infrastructure, research and development. The Department of Space, in the 2021-2022 budget received ₹5,240 crores.

The Department of Biotechnology has been given Rs 2,581 crores and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research has been allocated ₹5,636.46 in the new financial year.

Focus on countering climate change

As the Centre announced plans to counter climate change with several pilot projects and enabling better green energy, the Finance Minister allocated ₹3,030 crore to Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. The allocation is up from ₹2,520 earmarked for the ministry in the previous year’s budget.

The government will spend ₹78.62 crore on environmental knowledge and capacity building as it looks to create awareness among people about the impacts of climate change. The finance minister in her budget speech announced four pilot projects for the conversion of coal to energy along with an additional allocation of ₹19,500 crore to facilitate domestic manufacturing to boost 280 gigawatts of installed solar capacity by 2030.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences has been allocated ₹54873.66 crore in Budget 2022, up from ₹52189.07 allocated in the last financial year.