-TheWire.in With revenues of the government expanding significantly, this was an opportunity to present a more expansive budget. Unfortunately, the budget made a clear choice. Unlike last year, this year expectations from Budget 2022-23 with respect to the social SECtor – particularly with respect to schemes for nutrition – were low. While India relied heavily during the peak of the pandemic last year on its welfare architecture, trends on the release of funds...

-Newsclick.in The SC has issued notice to the Centre over public authorities failing to disclose information under the central RTI Act, which applies to the region since 2019. Despite the rhetorical emphasis on e-governance, public authorities have failed to make suo moto information disclosures on their official websites in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country. In 2013, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) directed all public authorities to...

-Financial Express With the fertility rate falling below replacement, challenges of higher dependency, burgeoning healthcare and social SECurity needs will emerge. India must mount the necessary policy-response The time has come for India to turn a new leaf on population policy. The country’s fertility rate has already fallen below the replacement level, 2, according to the latest data from the National Family Health Survey, which was largely collected before the nation felt...

-The Hindu The Government needs to stop India’s avalanching slide into a grossly divided society, made worse by the pandemic On January 17, 2022, Oxfam International presented its annual global “Inequality Report”. Titled Inequality Kills, the report calculated and presented the quantum growth in wealth of a minuscule few, and the simultaneous impoverishment of millions of working people. During the novel coronavirus pandemic, the report reveals, more than half the world’s new...

-TheWire.in How did the onset of the pandemic affect already-struggling budget management, how did the SECond wave affect the measures taken in Budget 2021-22 and what should we look for in the upcoming Budget? The latest estimates suggest that India’s economic output in 2021-22 is likely to, once again, reach the level it was at in 2019-20. If this happens, the pandemic would have delayed India’s journey to prosperity by two years....