-The Hindu The primary health-care system in India, intended to enable affordable health care, has not delivered on its promise. Rural, public health facilities are unable to attract, retain and ensure the regular presence of trained medical professionals. Health centres and hospitals in the public sector have proliferated but they are distributed inequitably. India may have one government hospital bed for every 1,833 people, but the reality is that while in...

-Livemint.com Three questions can help understand whether the budget has enough wherewithal to provide a big rural stimulus New Delhi: The government has given enough signals that the distress-ridden rural sector would receive special focus in the forthcoming Budget. On Monday, a Mint report quoted senior officials in the agriculture ministry saying that there could be a significant increase in budgetary allocations for crop insurance and irrigation. But in the backdrop...

-The Hindu Business Line Higher social sector spending by the government boosts income and consumption, and spurs growth India’s economic growth is now much more closely linked to the state of the rural economy than it ever was. Sustaining a 7.5-per cent growth in GDP would be contingent on higher growth in rural household consumption. Rural expenditure grew 5.7 per cent annually during 2005-15 — against 5 per cent annual growth in the...

-Business Standard Conventional subsidy bill of Rs 2.44 lakh crore, or 1.7 per cent of GDP, in 2015-16 If lower tax rate is equivalent to subsidising, the National Democratic Alliance government is clearly targeting the 'well-off' segment of the population. Unlike the previous years, the Economic Survey 2015-16 has dealt with the issue of subsidy by giving only a box on petroleum subsidies, while devoting a chapter with nine-and-a-half pages to 'Bounties...

Amidst uncertainty over India's performance in terms of agricultural production and livelihood security of rural population, the Union Budget of 2016-17 will be presented by Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley on 29 February. Given the extent of drought in more than 10 states of India during 2015-16, it is expected that the NDA Government will allocate more resources for rejuvenating the rural sector. Since the country has seen two years of...