AKIPRESS.COM - Eying an election next year, India’s government announced massive spending for rural areas and projected economic growth above 8 percent in an annual budget on Thursday that won broad approval from economists, though bond and share markets fell, Reuters reported.

Delivering the last full annual budget before an election that will fall due by May next year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allocated 14.34 trillion Indian rupees ($225.50 billion)for rural infrastructure spending and extra support for farmers.

Jaitley also announced plans to introduce “the world’s largest government funded health care program”, saying it would cover some 500 million of the country’s poorest people. He went on to lay out plans to merge three public sector insurance companies and list the new entity.

Spending in fiscal 2018/19 was projected to increase by 13.2 percent from the current year ending in March, with about three-fifths allocated to better infrastructure in the countryside, where two--thirds of India’s 1.3 billion people live.

“This budget is farmer friendly, common citizen friendly, business environment friendly and development friendly. It will add to ease of living,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after the budget announcement.

Jaitley said the spending in rural areas aimed at creating jobs and entrepreneurs, in addition to laying hundreds of thousands of miles of rural roads, building new houses, toilets, and providing electricity.

During his presentation to parliament, Jaitley switched from English to Hindi as he outlined schemes to promote agriculture, organic farming, animal husbandry and fisheries, ensuring that his message got through to rural communities.

The finance minister later told state-run Doordashan Television that the largesse was nothing to do with winning votes for Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Analysts thought otherwise.