-Livemint.com Krishi Kalyan Cess, a 0.5% cess on all taxable services introduced last year to support a drought-hit farm sector, will raise Rs 9,000 crore in 2016-17 New Delhi: Krishi Kalyan Cess, a 0.5% cess on all taxable services introduced last year to support a drought-hit farm sector, will raise Rs 9,000 crore in 2016-17, budget documents presented in the parliament on Wednesday showed. The central government is spending money from this corpus...

-NDTV The "highest ever allocation" to NREGA (which also led to it trending on Twitter)  in the Union Budget has provided a useful opportunity to raise some pressing issues related to the implementation of the scheme. It is natural, and welcome, that the government turn to NREGA to provide much-needed relief to those whose already precarious lives have been disrupted by demonetization, a man-made economic disaster. Widespread reports of job losses...

-Livemint.com While there have been some positives, including the reforms on political funding, the real test of the budget was the ability to manage spending to revive the economy This was the fourth budget of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Coming at a time when the world around is full of uncertainties, more was expected from the budget than what has been delivered. The domestic uncertainty is certainly the outcome of demonetisation....

-Livemint.com It should lay to rest the ongoing debate about this government’s attempt to radically restructure India’s welfare architecture There were no surprises—no helicopter drop of money into Jan-Dhan accounts, no move to dismantle ongoing welfare schemes in favour of a universal basic income (UBI). Far from being the populist, game-changing budget that many had expected, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley presented a sombre, status quo budget which, apart from some tinkering...

-The Indian Express The scheme grants Rs 6,000 to pregnant and lactating women who go for institutional delivery and vaccinate their children. The much-talked about maternity benefit entitlement of Rs 6,000 per woman, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 31, 2016, has received a meagre allocation of Rs 2,700 crore. This is not even a quarter of the estimate drawn up by civil society groups that have been long demanding...