-Outlook A tax holiday is expected to push more farmers to turn entrepreneurial The Budget’s announcement of a five-year tax holiday for Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) with a turnover of up to Rs 100 crore came as a relief to the thousands of farmers who are members of around 4,000 such companies in the country.  In December 2017, a sizeable number of farmers gathered at a national conference org­anised in Pune were...

-The Indian Express Various changes have been introduced in the execution of the government's skilling programme to generate more jobs, but to no avail. An average of just over one out of six people trained under the scheme have found a job. The government’s flagship skilling scheme — Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) — continues to grapple with the issue of achieving end-results, despite fresh attempts to redirect its focus to...

-The Hindu Policy should address credit, crop insurance, drip irrigation The government’s efforts to focus on the welfare of farmers in the Union Budget is admirable. However, in a zero-sum situation such as budget allocation, the government often finds itself trying to choose between short-term results and long-term benefits. Short term results might come with loan waivers and increase of Minimum Support Price (MSP), but care should be taken to address the...

-The Hindu A large-scale vocational education system would help raise the productivity of individuals and the economy Basic education has slipped in priority in the national policy matrix over the decades. The Census and several other data sets have pointed to various dimensions of the problem. Recently, the Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2017, published by a non-governmental organisation and containing data from 26 districts in 24 States, has some national-level...

-TheWire.in Even as schemes have received minimal allocations, this budget signals an important shift in the political narrative. Gone is the focus on jobs, skills, aspirations and empowerment. Arun Jaitley had a difficult choice to make this budget. Maintain fiscal prudence or respond to growing demands for public expenditure in light of growing rural distress and at the same time keeping an eye on 2019. He did this today with great panache....