Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will deliver the inaugural address in a webinar being organized by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), along with other Ministries, on 23rd February 2022. The programme is part of the series of webinars announced by the Government on the title ‘Leaving No Citizen Behind’ to discuss ways for effective implementation of initiatives announced in Union Budget 2022-23.

The webinar will witness participation of Government officials, representatives from various Ministries, institutes, consultants, domain experts, real estate developers and other stakeholders. Different break-out sessions on various domains related to rural & urban development will be hosted. The panellists will share their ideas on improving infrastructure in rural and urban areas with respect to affordable housing, water supply, rail, mobile, broadband connectivity, assuring livelihood options to rural poor with focus on women, banking services, easing land governance for the benefit of the people.

At the webinar, six breakout sessions have been scheduled to discuss and brainstorm with experts on how to lay down action points and strategize on Budget implementation roadmap. For the session on Housing For All, Ministry officials and eminent speakers from rural and urban housing sectors will hold discussions on ‘Realizing Housing for All in AmritKaal’ with primary focus on (i) Facilitating universal coverage of affordable housing (ii) Convergence with other schemes, urban planning and infrastructure strategies for enhancing delivery of affordable housing and (iii) Enhancing private participation in affordable housing sector.

While presenting the Union Budget 2022-23, Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman made several announcements that recognise the importance of urban housing and the increasing pace of urbanisation. Hon’ble Finance Minister emphasized that this Budget laid the foundation and gave a blueprint to steer the economy over the Amrit Kaal of the next 25 years – from India@75 to India@100. Hon’ble Finance Minister also announced that 80 lakh houses will be completed for the identified eligible beneficiaries of PM Awas Yojana, both rural and urban, and ₹48,000 crore is allocated for this purpose. Out of which, ₹28,000 crore has been provisioned for PMAY(U) only. This financial commitment will not only provide shelters, but also add dignity in the lives of 80 lakh beneficiary households, benefitting around 4 crore citizens of the country. Out of these 80 lakh houses to be completed in 2022-23, 28 lakh houses will be in the urban areas and 52 lakh houses in the rural areas of the country.

The webinar will begin at 11 am with an introduction to ‘Housing for All and Budget Announcements’ by Shri Manoj Joshi, Secretary, MoHUA. Thereafter, the speakers/experts at the webinar from MoHUA - Shri Ajay Jain, Special Chief Secretary (Housing), Government of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Harsh Vardhan Patodia, President, CREDAI and Shri Shubhagto Dasgupta, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research (CPR); from MoRD, Dr  P K Dash, Visiting Professor, School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi & International Consultant, UNDP, Dr Manish Ranjan, Secretary, Rural Development, Jharkhand and Shri SK Negi, CBRI will join in, to share their insights.

The session will be of two hours including Questions & Answers and discussions. To register for the session, click on https://pmayu.webex.com/pmayu/j.php?RGID=r7fcea2cedbeb286316ae7eed8f1b12d7.

The agenda for the webinar is as follow: