-Newsclick.in Directly or indirectly, the government seems uninterested in creating jobs. At a time of widespread and intense concern about the worst unemployment situation in 45 years and all the distress and discontent that accompanies it, one would have expected the Union government to put job-creation at the top of its priority-list. One of the most obvious and direct ways to do this would be to expand its own schemes and programmes...

-Newsclick.in An opaque policy, inefficiency and a flawed target plague this scheme. Over the past twelve months, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been one of the most-cornered ministers of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, owing largely to her weak and often ambiguous comments on the state of the Indian economy. For her and her supporters, this year’s Union budget was meant to both rejuvenate and rekindle investor’s hopes and sentiments. The...

-Economic and Political Weekly Though the 16-point action plan for agriculture laid down in the 2020 Union budget continues prioritising subsidies and safety nets over agricultural investments, it does not make any fundamental improvements in the allocations towards these heads. Please click here to access the article. ...

-Economic and Political Weekly The Union budget of 2020 is conspicuous by its non-recognition of the ongoing and widely discussed slowdown of the economy, let alone its impact on the different sections of the people. Given the negative growth in employment and consumption in the rural economy, the budget seems like a cruel joke on the plight of the poor, in general, and women, in particular. Instead of measures for boosting...

-Newsclick.in As the numbers show, the government isn’t putting its money where its mouth is Everyone, including the government, recognises the special health and nutrition needs of adolescent girls. The only trouble is, the Union government forgets this at the time of actually providing funds for nutrition. Why else would the government cut the funds for the specific schemes for nutrition to only a half of the original allocation? In the budget for...