-The Hindu “The purpose of a Budget – and the job of a Finance Minister,” P. Chidambaram declared in his speech, “is to create the economic space and find the resources to achieve the socio economic objectives.” Now that the presentation of and the spate of initial responses to the budget are behind us, it may be appropriate to ask how far the Minister went in accomplishing his self-defined task. Mr. Chidambaram...
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Direct Benefit Transfer a failure, beneficiaries excluded: Aruna Roy
-The Hindu Out of 20,000 beneficiaries in Ajmer district, only 220 actually received cash Accusing the government of “forcing” people to enrol for an Aadhaar number, social activist and National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy says the performance of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme in the first two months has been “dismal,” resulting in “exclusion” of poor beneficiaries. Ms. Roy, a vociferous opponent of linking Aadhaar with welfare delivery, expressed her concerns...
More »Budget 2013: UIDAI's plan spending doubled to Rs 2,620 cr in 2013-14
-PTI The Plan spending of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), responsible for issuing Aadhaar numbers to residents, has been almost doubled to Rs 2,620 crore in 2013-14 from the revised estimates in the current fiscal. The authority's revised estimates of Plan expenditure in the current fiscal stands at Rs 1,350 crore compared to the budget estimates of Rs 1,758 crore. The actual Plan expenditure of the authority was 1,187.53 crore in...
More »Budget 2013: Chidambaram focuses on women, youth, poor in budget
-IANS To woo "ambitious" women, "impatient" youth and the poor, the Congress-led UPA government Thursday promised them more schemes and programmes as they "represent the vast majority of the people of India". "...before I close this part of my speech, I wish to draw a picture of three faces that represent the vast majority of the people of India," finance minister P Chidambaram said. "The first if the face of the woman. She...
More »A walk on the wild side
-The Economist Government borrowing generates inflation, widens the external deficit and crowds out much-needed investment. Can India now overcome its debt addiction? INDIA has grappled with its public finances for long enough. When presenting its first budget after independence in 1947, the finance minister of the day insisted that the country was not living beyond its means. Yet every budget since has failed to produce a surplus. India borrows more heavily...
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