-The Telegraph Maharashtra leads the surge, Kerala improves, says health ministry India’s health ministry reported over 40,000 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, raising the count of patients by over 17,000 in a single day after a week during which the spread of the virus was the fastest since August. The 40,953 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases, over 25,000 in Maharashtra alone, documented till 8am on Saturday increased the number of patients under medical supervision to...

-The Telegraph They have completed the 'ease of doing business' reforms stipulated by the department of expenditure Twenty States have completed the “ease of doing business” reforms stipulated by the department of expenditure, which would enable them to get an additional borrowing permission of Rs 39,521 crore through open market borrowings, the finance ministry said on Saturday. “States completing ease of doing business reforms are eligible for additional borrowing of 0.25 per cent...

-PTI/ The Hindu With this, 20 States are now eligible for an additional borrowing of 0.25% of Gross State Domestic Product. As many as 20 States have successfully completed ease of doing business reforms, the Finance Ministry said on Saturday. States completing the reforms are eligible for additional borrowing of 0.25% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). “The number of States that have successfully completed the 'Ease of Doing Business' reforms has reached to...

-The Indian Express States have spent less in this year, may focus on fiscal consolidation in the year to come. This belies hopes of a public-spending-led recovery. Over the past few weeks, several state governments have presented their budgets for the financial year 2021-22. These budgets shed light not only on how state finances have fared during the current year (2020-21) but equally critically, detail the expenditure stance of these governments during...

Quite often it is argued by mainstream economists that a sizeable chunk of the Union Budget every year is wasted because the Government spends that on food and fertiliser subsidies. The burgeoning size of these two subsidies relative to the entire budget as well as the gross domestic product (GDP) is often used to build the argument that economic as well as environmental sustainability of the country is at stake...