🖋Mains Practice Q&A — Green Budgeting (March 2025 Yojana)

🧭 Thematic Focus:

• GS Paper: (e.g., GS Paper 2 – Governance & Polity)
• Yojana Edition: March 2025
• Category: Monthly Summaries → Yojana Summaries → March 2025
• Tags: Fiscal Federalism, Union Budget 2025, Finance Commission, Cooperative Federalism

❓ Mains Practice Question (250 Words)

Q4. What is Green Budgeting? Examine the measures announced in Union Budget 2025–26 to integrate environmental sustainability into fiscal policy.

(Word Limit: 250)

🖊️ Suggested Model Answer:

Answer:
Green Budgeting refers to the process of integrating environmental sustainability and climate goals into fiscal planning, expenditure, and policy formulation. It enables governments to align economic growth with long-term ecological resilience and global climate commitments.

India’s Union Budget 2025–26 advances this agenda by prioritizing clean energy, green technology, circular economy, and climate-resilient agriculture. The budget supports India’s commitment under the Paris Agreement and its revised NDC target of 45% emission intensity reduction by 2030.

Key measures include a 39% hike in MNRE’s budget to ₹25,649 crore and a 66% increase in funding for the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana. The Green Hydrogen Mission saw its allocation doubled to ₹600 crore, targeting industrial decarbonization. Nuclear energy capacity expansion to 100 GW by 2047 is backed by ₹20,000 crore in R&D and policy support.

In mobility, the government removed customs duty on EV components and strengthened the PLI scheme for battery storage. Circular economy goals are advanced through incentives for ship recycling and mineral recovery.

Additionally, ₹600 crore was allocated for Green Energy Corridors, and reforms in DISCOMs aim to stabilize the grid for renewable integration. The budget also promotes climate-resilient agriculture, including solar-powered irrigation and farmer risk mitigation.

In essence, Budget 2025–26 moves India closer to a low-carbon, self-reliant future by embedding green principles across sectors.

🧩 Keywords for Enrichment:

• Green Budgeting
• NDC target (45% emission intensity reduction by 2030)
• PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana
• Green Hydrogen Mission
• MNRE Budget hike
• Circular Economy incentives
• Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)
• Green Energy Corridors (GECs)
• Climate-resilient agriculture
• EV & battery PLI scheme

🔍 GS Paper Mapping

• GS Paper 2 – Governance, Centre–State relations
• GS Paper 3 – Budgeting, Public Finance

🪔 Closing Whisper:

“A budget that breathes green breathes life into the nation.” 🌱