-The Hindu ‘It moved from a revenue surplus to a revenue deficit State’ Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s fiscal indicators have deterioRATed drastically from 2012-13 to 2018-19 and most borrowings in the recent years have gone to fund its revenue deficit, instead of capital expenditure, the 15th Finance Commission report tabled in the Parliament recently said. Tamil Nadu moved from a “revenue surplus” to a “revenue deficit” State after 2012-13, it noted. A revenue deficit...

-MongabayIndia.com * The main focus of the Union Budget for 2021-22 is on infrastructure development-led growth. * This is expected to create a demand in the economy and thereby help it recover after the pandemic crisis. * This commentary explores whether the thrust on infrastructure development will lead to adverse environmental consequences. * The views expressed in this commentary are that of the author. Investment in infrastructure is the most important focus area in the...

-IdeasforIndia.in Commenting on the strong infrastructure push in the 2021-22 Budget, Sarmistha Pal argues that an emphasis on investment in infrastructure may not necessarily bring India out of the current economic recession – with the Budget’s negligence of the education sector and insufficient health expenditure, making matters worse. The 2021-22 Union Budget, announced on 1 February 2021, made a definitive turn to the right as it turned its back on providing any...

-The Indian Express Many patients also reported their inability to access public insurance schemes like MPJAY due to lack of co-opeRATion from hospitals, and incurring heavy debt to pay their hospital bills for Covid and other emergency health conditions. Pune: Manisha Palekar from Kolhapur narRATed the story of her husband, a public school teacher, who tested positive for Covid-19 and had to be admitted to a private hospital, which charged them Rs...

In order to understand why the Union Budget 2021-22 is being termed as ‘transparent’, it has to be read simultaneously with the 15th Finance Commission Main Report for 2021-26. But first, let us discuss 'fertilizer subsidy'. The budget documents for Union Budget 2021-22 show that the spending on ‘fertilizer subsidy’ was slashed from Rs. 1,33,947 crore in 2020-21 (revised estimate) to Rs. 79,530 crore in 2021-22 (budget estimate). However, the budgetary...