-The Hindu That there is no targeted employment programme to alleviate the immediate crisis is a matter of concern The Budget, at its simplest, is the government’s tentative income and expenditure statement. Like all financial statements, the devil lies in the fine print. At its broadest, the Budget is a pious statement of the government’s policy and ideological intentions. It is also the government’s statement of how it seeks to tackle the...

-Livemint.com The Union government has finally stepped on the gas when it comes to spending. But after a temporary splurge in the rest of this fiscal year, the finance ministry will tighten its purse strings to bring down debt levels, the budget numbers suggest Even as countries across the world raised spending aggressively to counter the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic, India had remained an outlier. Throughout the pandemic, the finance...

-TheWire.in One of the most disturbing effects of the pandemic has been on the nutritional needs of the disadvantaged. The Budget needs to prioritise addressing this issue. The pandemic led disruptions of nutrition services have exacerbated India’s existing burden of undernutrition. Children did not get the mid-day meals and supplementary nutrition under the anganwadi services scheme they were registered under. Critical health services like immunisation, iron-folic acide and calcium supplementation, treatment of...

-TheWire.in Farmers may have to pay 18% GST on the income earned through corporate farming, which the new laws are expected to promote. Like a retro Bollywood movie with multiple double acts and plot twists, the controversy surrounding the three farm laws is not just limited to the specific legislations per se, but there is more to it, much more sinister. When the Income Tax Act, 1995 (ITA) and Central Goods and...

-Financial Express Union Budget 2021 Expectations by Women: The Union Budget 2021-22 presents an opportunity to ensure that India’s economic growth and development is inclusive. Union Budget 2021-22 Expectations by Women: The year 2021 started with a renewed sense of hope, with vaccines for COVID-19 being rolled out across several nations. There is also hope that countries will be able to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels of growth by designing and delivering...