-The Hindu Political alignments should not come in the way of defending the fiscal rights of States My fellow Finance Ministers in the States, I hope you will agree that the award of the Finance Commission is vital to State finances. Some of us who met initially at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and later at Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, are worried about the implications of the terms of reference (ToR) of the Finance Commission...
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How State budgets will fare if petrol, diesel are brought under GST -Rohan Abraham
-The Hindu While consumers will be glad to see their fuel bills slashed by the advent of a favourable rate structure under the GST, State governments will have to contend with an erosion in tax revenue. At the time of writing, petrol was retailing at Rs.82.48/litre in Mumbai, roughly 62% more than the Rs.50.8/litre Pakistanis shell out for a tank of gas. This is despite the fact that crude oil prices are...
More »Karnataka joins Rs 100cr seizure club
-The Telegraph New Delhi: The cumulative value of cash, liquor and other bribes to voters seized by the Election Commission during the Karnataka Assembly polls is Rs 150 crore. The seizure had been Rs 193.29 crore in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 and Rs 130.99 in Tamil Nadu in 2016. Director-general (expenditure) Dilip Sharma said 136 expenditure observers, 1,557 flying squads and 2,181 static surveillance teams with GPS-enabled vehicles had been deployed in Karnataka. The...
More »NGO plays 'Padman' to empower women in Sabarmati jail -DP Bhattacharya
-The Economic Times If anyone thinks jail is a leveller of gender discrimination, think again. It can be quite stark, even in jail. The men and women in Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad are treated quite differently as far as work is concerned. In stereotypical fashion, only the men in the jail got to work, while the women had nothing to do and no opportunity to earn. The men in this jail make...
More »Jean Dreze, development economist and social activist, interviewed by Sagar (CaravanMagazine.in)
-CaravanMagazine.in The economist Jean Drèze’s book, Sense and Solidarity, published in late 2017, deals with the impact of Aadhaar on social-welfare programmes, such as the National Food Security Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, among other things. Drèze was a member of the United Progressive Alliance government’s advisory council, which designed the NFSA and MGNREGS. He co-authored some of the essays in this book with colleagues and...
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