-Hindustan Times The cost has been revised following recommendations by a review committee constituted last year that included representatives from the ministries of education, Finance and labour, besides independent experts. The central government has increased the cost of cooking school midday meals by 9.6% from October 1 that will be valid for financial year 2022-23, the education ministry has told the state governments and union territories, which will offer some relief to...

-The Hindu The one lever that the government could have pulled as it watched private investment decline was to step up public investment In a meeting held with the country’s corporate leaders on September 15, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman drew attention to an important aspect of the economy today. She rightly flagged concerns about sluggish corporate investment, despite the government’s business-friendly stance, including a reduction in the corporate tax. The reduction, effected...

-Ideas for India The share of bank credit extended to MSMEs increased dramatically during the pandemic. In this post, Harsh Vardhan discusses the the government guarantee of bank loans as a possible driver of this growth. He outlines the current policy of providing credit against collateral, and the constraints MSMEs face while borrowing– which leads to decreased investment and firm productivity. He argues that the learnings from the credit guarantee scheme...

-The Telegraph The airbrushing of the Indian economy is damaging The latest Monthly Economic Review from the ministry of Finance gives the reader a great deal of comfort by indicating that all is well with the Indian economy. If there is any cause for concern at all, it is from external economic and political shocks: events like the Federal Reserve in the United States of America raising interest rates, or Russia invading...

-The Hindu The government’s fiscal health will be brought into the political discourse with the proposed change, says top Election Commission of India official  The Election Commission of India’s (EC) proposal that political parties disclose the financial ramifications of promises in their manifestos was not linked to the recent debate on freebies, but was aimed at improving the implementation of existing guidelines, a top EC official said on Wednesday. The EC had on...