-The Telegraph Sitharaman spun a narrative, listed some intent but did little to give the economy a much-needed push The nation had swooned over Narendra Modi’s Mazboot Bharat narrative in April-May, giving the BJP a thumping victory in the Lok Sabha polls. The success of the saffron camp in spinning narratives was in full display on Friday when Nirmala Sitharaman rose to present the Union budget 2019-20 that the ruling dispensation in...

-Livemint.com * FM vows to invest widely in agriculture infrastructure, but offers little to revive rural income and demand * In terms of new schemes, the budget announced Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana for the fisheries sector and another to boost traditional industries In March 2018, Rakesh Sangwan, 27, a farmer in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri, stopped watering his tomato plants. The crop slowly withered away and, subsequently, it was mowed down by a...

-TheWire.in While Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden budget hit all the right political notes, its fiscal math is far fuzzier. The first budget of the Narendra Modi government 2.0 is very high on political rhetoric around empowering the poorest in ‘New India’, but does not have a clear road map of how a fully-funded welfare state will be sustained without a robust revival in growth, based on the twin engines of investment and consumption...

-The Hindu It would seem that since the government is unable to catalyse domestic investment or fund public investment, it is now turning abroad to fuel growth Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is mistaken if she thinks her first Budget is going to revive a slowing economy. The economy grew by just 5.8% in real terms in the last quarter of 2018-19. Yet, the Union Budget for 2019-20 assumes that the economy will...

-The Hindu Business Line There has been a spike in income inequality in the post reforms period with wealth concentrated at the top deciles India has somehow nurtured a widely shared impression that it has a well established statistical system with reliable databases compiled through effective methods of data collection through its network of central agencies and periodic nation-wide surveys. However, India is one of the very few countries which does not...