-The Economic Times Blog The massive increase in expenditure on irrigation in this year’s Budget has raised hopes that more water will flow into fields. This can drought-proof the farmer, increase crop output and lead to greater rural prosperity, which, in turn, will generate demand for all kinds of goods and services. So, everybody will live happily ever after. Not so simple. While higher spending on irrigation is a good beginning, a lot...

-The Hindu The scheme also shuts out ‘innocent’ taxpayers who filed returns on time but whose cases were chosen for scrutiny to verify claims. Tax payers, whose returns were picked for random scrutiny by the authorities in recent years, would not be eligible to turn concealed income into ‘white’ under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), announced in the Union Budget to bring black money into the tax net. Experts believe this may...

-The Indian Express Gamlina’s response is just one example of how distant this government is from the lives of the poor and how tokenistic its schemes are. Gamlina Soren, an elected panchayat member in Jharkhand, sounded upset. She had been told by a local BJP functionary that gas cylinders were going to be “gifted” to poor women by the Centre but that they must have a BPL card. “But most poor Adivasi...

-Huffington Post Of all the arguments that have been raised this turbulent spring in our country, one stands out as egregiously vulgar. It evokes in me the moral equivalent of the middle-ear reflex to high intensity sounds, which has a special place in the hierarchy of unpleasant sensations. It's the tax nationalism argument. In essence, it's this: How dare students benefitting from subsidized education funded by OUR tax money hold opinions that...

-AP/Bloomberg Whether Modi can raise farmer incomes without stoking inflation may determine if his economic vision is any different from the previous Congress-led govt New Delhi: Shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power in 2014, his first economic plan promised modern cities, manufacturing corridors and bullet trains to aspirational Indians yearning to join a ‘neo middle class.’ This week his latest budget struck a much different tone, listing a slew...