-The Hindu Aadhaar-based biometric authentication did not reduce PDS leakages, finds Jharkhand-based empirical study “Aadhaar has curtailed leakages of government subsidies... Through Aadhaar, savings worth ₹90,000 crore have accrued to the government,” said Ajay Bhushan Pandey, then CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and current Revenue Secretary, in UIDAI’s 2017-18 annual report. But not so fast, say Professors Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus and Sandip Sukthankar. They have just published a...

-The Hindu Officers admit that additional amount announced by CM yet to be paid to farmers Belagavi (Karnataka): Delay in distribution of flood relief in Belagavi and surrounding districts is riling up farmers and they have threatened a series of agitations across North Karnataka. Officers admit that while that the government has paid compensation fixed by the calamity relief fund norms to eligible farmers, the additional amount of ?10,000 per acre promised by...

-Livemint.com With no significant spending increase to boost consumption or other major reform, the 2020 budget may lack the firepower to reignite the economy A growth slump, a precarious fiscal position and rising inflation: these are extraordinary times for the Indian economy. Yet in the 2020 Budget, these extraordinary times did not lead to the extraordinary measures so many economists were clamouring for. Like previous budgets under this government, the latest one...

-Business Standard/ NIPFP Strap: It recognises that the medium-term fiscal arithmetic does not afford space for expansionary fiscal policy   In my column on the FY20 Budget (A silent fiscal crisis, July 5, 2019), I had warned that the government faced a structural fiscal constraint that was concealed by using incorrectly optimistic numbers for revenue receipts. This year’s Budget is transparent. But the government continues to be heavily fiscally constrained due to inadequate...

-The Indian Express Advancing the Union Budget by a month has not helped fiscal marksmanship In the first part of this series on the Union Budget, we explained how the nominal Gross Domestic Product (which is the market value of all goods and services produced within the domestic boundaries of India) is the key number that determines the shape and form of the Union Budget. In short, the nominal GDP for the current...