-Press Release from Delhi Pension Parishad Activists from seven major campaigns stated unequivocally that the Union Budget for 2016-17 far from ‘Transforming India’, as claimed by the Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley, is neglecting the interests of farmers, the poor and vulnerable both in nominal and real terms and subjecting every life-affirming program to severe budget cuts. Activists from seven major campaigns such as the Right to Food Campaign , the...
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Budget 2016, through a prism of the poor -Brinda Karat
-The Indian Express Gamlina’s response is just one example of how distant this government is from the lives of the poor and how tokenistic its schemes are. Gamlina Soren, an elected panchayat member in Jharkhand, sounded upset. She had been told by a local BJP functionary that gas cylinders were going to be “gifted” to poor women by the Centre but that they must have a BPL card. “But most poor Adivasi...
More »By no means a ‘socialist’ Budget -G Sampath
-The Hindu Be it education, health, Pensions for the socially vulnerable, distressed farmers, or MGNREGA, the 2016 Union Budget has nothing radical to offer. Appearances can be deceptive. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s emphasis on doubling farm incomes, rural development, and allocations for a battery of impressively named schemes for the social sector may give the impression that the right-wing NDA government has suddenly taken a ‘socialist’ turn. The reality, however, is otherwise. Howsoever...
More »12 important Bills that our lawmakers will seek to pass this Budget Session
-The Hindu The Budget Session of the Indian Parliament will be held from Feb. 23 to May 13, 2016 with 31 sittings in all. The agenda for this government, caught in the midst of various political storms such as Rohith Vemula’s suicide and the crisis at Jawaharlal Nehru University, would be to draw consensus among all MPs for 12 essential Bills. Most of them — listed below — have already been...
More »Budget 2016: PAHAL may be a success but not all DBTs are; FM should mind the gaps -Malini Chakravarty
-FirstPost.com Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes, in vogue for some time in India now, have surfaced with renewed fervour over the last year and a half. DBT, as the term suggests, is a strategy aimed to electronically transfer price subsidies and benefits provided under various welfare schemes as cash directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries. The Economic Survey 2014-15 made a strong case for replacing various price subsidies and in-kind transfers...
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