-The Indian Express Somanathan said the government is trying to reach the target group of unskilled and semi-skilled workers through increased government expenditure in the construction sector. Working with a “constrained resource envelope” in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic ahead of Budget 2021-22, the government essentially had to make a choice between two policy options: handouts and capital expenditure. “We chose capex,” TV Somanathan, Expenditure Secretary, Ministry of Finance, told The...

-The Hindu ‘It moved from a revenue surplus to a revenue deficit State’ Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s fiscal indicators have deteriorated drastically from 2012-13 to 2018-19 and most borrowings in the recent years have gone to fund its revenue deficit, instead of capital expenditure, the 15th Finance Commission report tabled in the Parliament recently said. Tamil Nadu moved from a “revenue surplus” to a “revenue deficit” State after 2012-13, it noted. A revenue deficit...

-PTI/ The Hindu The Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre noted that the rising popularity of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) along with e-commerce has also expanded the scope of digital payments. Over 2.9 lakh cyber security incidents related to digital banking were reported in 2020, Parliament was informed on Thursday. As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 1,59,761;...

-Hindustan Times The chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, NK Singh, spoke to Zia Haq about the final report of the Commission for 2021-26 which has now been made public. Edited excerpts. The Constitution, through ARTicle 280 to 281, provides for finance commissions every five years as a mechanism for sharing of taxes and revenues vertically between the Centre and states; and horizontally among all states, based on levels of development, demographic...

-IDROnline.org The story of a self-help group that boosted livelihoods and household incomes in Odisha, depicted through Madhubani ART. In Koraput district, Odisha, lies a remote village called Kanjariguda, home to an Adivasi community of farmers who predominantly grow ragi and rice. The village is so remote that villagers have to walk several kilometres—across forests and mountains—to hull their rice or access basic services such as mobile charging, photocopying, or printing. In 2019,...