-The Hindu Arun Jaitley has steered clear of populist giveaways in the run-up to Assembly elections Some said it was a ‘make or break’ Budget, one that would use the potential gains from demonetisation to give a decisive push to economic growth. Others said it would be a populist budget aimed at the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere. It has turned out to be neither. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has presented...

-The Economic Times PUNE: Farmers are highly disappointed with Budget 2017 alleging that the Prime Minister has not done enough to fulfill his pre-election promises made to the farming community. The announcement of increasing farm credit to 10 lakh crore may not help much the small and marginalised farmers, who are outside the banking network. "About 60% of the farmers are outside the banking system. They depend upon the informal SECtor for loans....

-Livemint.com On demonetisation’s impact on the agriculture SECtor, the Economic Survey said higher winter plantings may not necessarily lead to higher production New Delhi: India’s farm SECtor is entwined in regulation and is a living legacy of the socialist era, the Economic Survey released on Tuesday said, criticizing curbs on marketing of agriculture produce and imposition of stock limits on traders. “While progress has been made in the last two years, producers (farmers)...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's public spending on health is about five times lower than the world average, the Economic Survey released today has said, adding the country lacks good models of health care for replication nationwide. The survey, in a SECtion on social SECtor expenditure trends, has pointed out that the government's annual expenditure on health was 1.2 per cent of the gross domestic product in 2013-14, 1.1 per cent in...

-The Telegraph Guwahati: Bihar is yet to verify a single of the over 47,000 documents sent by Assam despite a Supreme Court directive issued three months ago to all states to expedite the verification process for updating the National Register of Citizens in Assam. "There is zero response from Bihar where a total of 47,423 documents were sent for verification," an official source said. He said a Supreme Court bench of Justice Ranjan...