At present, the government spending on education is about 3.4 percent of GDP ‘It is imperative that the government increase outlays in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' A delegation of the People's Budget Initiative met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee here on Saturday to demand enhanced resources for the social sector which was crucial for the development of human resource and the nation. Formed in 2006, People's Budget Initiative is a coalition comprising representatives from people's...
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NAC: PM's panel got its economics wrong by Nitin Sethi
The Prime Minister-appointed Rangarajan Committee reviewing the draft food security bill has got its economics and logic wrong, a majority of members on the National Advisory Council has said as part of a draft report. Ready to take on the PMO, the council is nearing finalization of the report that will point out errors in the Rangarajan report and defend the NAC's food security bill. The rebuttal is bound to...
More »Budget 2011: NREGA outlay likely to stay flat this year by Deepshikha Sikarwar
The forthcoming budget is unlikely to propose a steep hike in allocation of funds for the government's flagship rural welfare scheme despite a sharp increase in the wage rates under it. The finance ministry is likely to allocate only 42,000-45,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a government official told ET. The scheme will have an opening balance of about 10,000 crore, the official said. This precludes...
More »Farm credit target to see 20% rise to Rs 4,50,000 cr by Dheeraj Tiwari
The budget for the next fiscal is likely to step up the target for farm credit to 4,50,000 crore, up 20% from the current year's 3,75,000 crore. With the agriculture sector seen growing at 5.4% in the current fiscal, the government will push banks to disburse more to the sector to maintain the momentum, said a senior government official. The upheavel in the micro-finance sector will also necessitate greater lending by banks. "The...
More »It’s the fisc
While monetary policy is an important element of the artillery against inflation — and with the 25 basis point hike, the RBI did part of what it was expected to do to tighten policy — there is the fiscal task too. As Raghuram Rajan, adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, points out, the Centre must control expenditure, cut subsidies and not start new spending programmes. Fiscal deficits are large and rising...
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