evidence: While funding for health, education and sanitation programmes in Budget 2018-19 appears to be the highest over the last three years–a 13 percent rise from the previous year–the money set aside has declined from actual allocations of 2017-18, according to a FactChecker analysis of Budget data . With an eye on the 2019 general elections, finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the world’s largest national health insurance programme, scholarships for 1,000 doctorate engineering students at the Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institute of Science, and the construction of 18.8 million toilets by 2019. The estimated budgetary expenditure on health, education and social protection for 2018-19 is now Rs.1.38 lakh crore, a 13 percent rise over the estimated expenditure of Rs.1.22 lakh crore in 2017-18. [...] On a positive note, the budget for the National Nutrition Mission –a programme that seeks to reduce stunting, undernutrition, anemia and low birth weight of babies–under the women and child development ministry, rose over three times, from Rs 950 crore in 2017-18 (revised estimates) to Rs 3,000 crore in 2018-19 (budget estimate). This restores the government’s commitment to the improving nutrition status among Indian children, after the programme’s budget was cut in the revised estimate for 2017-18. From an allocation of Rs 1,500 crore, the revised estimate came down 36.6 percent to Rs 950 crore for that year.