Although finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had promised food security and inclusive growth in his budget speech last year, hunger continues to stalk over 300 million citizens of the country. India slipped to 67th place in the Global Hunger Index 2010 rankings of 122 countries prepared by International Food Policy Research Institute. An Oxford University report said that 410 million Indians live in poverty. While there may be nit-picking over the...
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Karnataka Budget gives prime place to agricultural sector by S Rajendran
Estimated expenditure on farm and irrigation sectors is Rs. 17,857 crore The agricultural sector has been given prime place in the State Budget presented to the Legislative Assembly on Thursday by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who also holds the Finance portfolio. Mr. Yeddyurappa's focus on agriculture is reminiscent of the Union Budget presented by the first Janata Party Government of Morarji Desai in the post-Emergency era. The estimated expenditure on agriculture and irrigation...
More »More bang for the buck from Non-NREGA work
Public employment created by non-NREGA public works may just be giving more bang for the buck than NREGA, around a fourth more going by the findings of the NSS survey on employment in 2007-08. In which case, the finance minister would do well to keep the spending for NREGA under check. According to the NSS 2007-08, a total of 477 million mandays of work were created under non-NREGA public works and...
More »Worth its weights
Economists often tell the story about the drunk, the coin and the lamp-post. A drunk is searching around a lamp-post for a coin. On being asked where he dropped it, he waves unsteadily in the darkness beyond reach of the lamp-post’s light. Why not look there? Because, he tells you, the light’s over here. The point, for economists, is that our approach to problems is frequently warped by what data...
More »Promises to keep by Harsh Mander
Even four years after the Sachar Committee Report revealed that Muslims were one of the most economically backward and socially disadvantaged communities, nothing much has been done to address the development deficits of this community. The Constitution of the republic of free India was crafted in troubled but idealistic times. The Indian people were still reeling from Partition bloodshed and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, in the dark shadows of politics...
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