-TelanganaToday.in Follow the Keynesian policy and go for larger fiscal deficit that puts more purchasing power in people’s hands Finance Minister Nirmala SITharaman will present her second Budget on February 1 amid a slowdown in GDP growth and an increase in the rate of unemployment. Even supply-side economists are acknowledging that the current SITuation is because of the problem of aggregate demand. The demand-side economists, anyway, have been arguing for expansionary...

-The Hindu 96% of annual allocation exhausted. The Centre is on the verge of running out of funds for the crucial Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. More than 96% of the allocated money has already been spent or is needed to pay pending dues, with less than Rs.2,500 crore left to sustain the scheme for the next two months. Fifteen States are already in the red. According to the scheme’s...

-The Indian Express Thanks to the efforts of district police and administration, villagers are recovering from Naxal violence. Raipur: Twenty-eight-year old Devi Podiam, a resident of Potali village in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, is used to allocating two full days at the beginning of each month just to walk over 10 km to a ration shop in Tirkapara in order to get monthly supplies of rice and other necesSITies for her family....

-The Indian Express As India inches towards its goal of universal healthcare, there is a need for the budget to try to ensure that healthcare sector requirements are well funded and the budget contains provisions that energise accessible, affordable and quality healthcare. Here's what the government can do to boost the healthcare sector. India’s annual healthcare spend hovers around 4 per cent of GDP with high out of pocket expenditure and low...

-The Hindu The Budget needs to provide direction to India’s tottering economy and a boost to aggregate demand and investment The forthcoming Union Budget will determine whether India’s economic engine gets the steam needed for a rebound, or the current economic SITuation becomes even worse. Not just the future of the economy, the future of the country’s youth depends on the Budget. The unemployment rate at 6.1% (Financial Year 2017-2018) is the highest...