Just reclassified Rs 1.46 lakh crore of spending as capital investment. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget for 2011-12 seems to have used a new accounting system to make a virtue of necessity. Committed to provide funds to run the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or MGNREGS, Mukherjee has transferred the entire financial allocation for the scheme under a head that will now help him take credit for a reduced effective...

Poor allocation of funds to key social sectors shows the government’s lacklustre approach to inclusive growth. We are reaching the end of a remarkable fiscal year,” said the finance minister as he rose to present the Union Budget 2011-12. Agreeing with the government that the year gone by presented us with several opportunities and challenges to address critical concerns pertaining to the social sector, the overall sense is that this Budget,...

Corruption and inflation, the bugbears of UPA-2, dominated discussions Congress functionaries held with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee amid expectations from the party that a populist Budget would help check the negative tide against the Centre. Party leaders are hoping specifically for income tax relief for the middle class and concessions for rural populace as the budgetary antidote to the negativity post-2G spectrum scam. Mukherjee assured his party that prices would come down...

Union rural development and panchayati raj minister C P Joshi on Wednesday suggested that the re c o rd s maintained under the M a h at m a Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme could be used to identify the poor to prepare the BPL census 2011. Emphasising the need for a one-dimensional reference for surveying the BPL families, Joshi said that identifying the ‘real’ poor was getting tougher in...

The government has begun discussions with Dalit entrepreneurs on what can be done to promote business ventures set up by members of their community. As a part of its discussions with various groups before it finalizes the 12th Plan for 2012-17, the Planning Commission has sought suggestions from the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Dicci), a business group, on what can be done to spur Dalit capitalism, how these...