-TheWire.in The making of the Union Budget has been a far too secretive and hidden exercise. Social sector expenditure and allocations related to policy announcements should be matters of open ongoing debate. On December 20, 2017, a group of 60 eminent economists sent an open letter to the finance minister stating: “We are writing to draw your attention to two urgent priorities for the forthcoming budget.” The first was to increase the central...
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Health schemes will go haywire if pollution isn't curbed, says Supreme Court -Amit Anand Choudhary
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Days after the Centre announced an ambitious healthcare scheme to provide up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation, the Supreme Court on Monday reminded the government that such programme would not be effective till pollution crisis is effectively tackled first. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that 13 out of 20 most polluted...
More »What the US Health Insurance Programme Can Teach India -Rama V Baru
-TheWire.in Why has India chosen the path of expanding medical insurance instead of a more comprehensive approach to health? The concern with rising inequities in access to medical care, rising out-of-pocket expenditures and unmet treatment needs have been addressed with yet another targeted medical insurance scheme for poor households. The idea of a targeted medical insurance is not new. Several southern states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka had introduced such schemes many...
More »Budget 2018: It is by the privileged for the privileged -Aruna Roy
-The Financial Express Budget 2018: The government claims that this is the Budget for a “new India”.However, this vision excludes rural workers, small & marginal farmers and the unorganised sector. Many claims are being made about the farm sector. The fact is even the “optics” only partially meet these. The substance of this Budget shows how little it caters to farmers, and the economically & politically marginalised. The demand of farmers agitating...
More »Top analysts shoot five big holes in Jaitley's Budget -Amit Mudgill
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Investors may be losing sleep over the re-entry of long-term capital gains tax on equities, but analysts feel that the worrylines are actually running deeper than you realise. The mega ambitious healthcare scheme announced in the Union Budget on Thursday is one such point of concern -- which aims to benefit 10 crore poor families for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. Sceptics are having a field day,...
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