-The Hindu The rhetoric in the Budget of accelerated, inclusive and sustainable development receives only limited financial backing The general election is over and a new government has been formed. But the campaign does not seem to end. More than an hour of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s maiden Budget speech was largely devoted to underlining what she claimed were the remarkable economic achievements of the previous government. Given that legacy, she presented...

-Down to Earth Farmers and farm labourers, who want to quit agriculture, are stuck in the non-remunerative work since other sectors are not generating jobs at the required rate We are fairly sure by now that the upcoming Budget would be the first government instrument towards the prime minister’s ambitious plan of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2024. Currently, India is nearly a $2.8 trillion economy. It is obvious we...

-Down to Earth India’s GDP for health is less than 1.5 per cent and is one of the lowest in the world Health infrastructure, especially in the rural areas, is going to be one of the challenging tasks ahead for the new government. In its last tenure, it brought the Ayushman Bharat scheme — the government run health insurance programme — which was seen as a major health policy intervention. However, according...

-The Indian Express Interestingly, researchers observed that as much as 5 million people left the workforce between 2016 and 2018. "The beginning of the decline in jobs coincided with demonetisation in November 2016, although no direct causal relationship can be established based only on these trends," The State of Working India (SWI) 2019 report released by Azim Premji University says. Bengaluru: Researchers and economists of Azim Premji University, based in Bangalore,...

-Livemint.com * Only 13% surveyed chose cash if it came at the expense of spending to improve public health and nutrition * The number grew to 35% if the cash came at the expense of improving roads New Delhi: A timely survey conducted in rural Bihar by a World Bank economist and two professors from the Georgetown University to gauge the response of poor people on the raging debate over a minimum income...