-TheWire.in With revenues of the government expanding significantly, this was an opportunity to present a more expansive budget. Unfortunately, the budget made a clear choice. Unlike last year, this year expectations from Budget 2022-23 with respect to the social sector – particularly with respect to schemes for nutrition – were low. While India relied heavily during the peak of the pandemic last year on its welfare architecture, trends on the release of funds...

-The Tribune Plan to end waterlogging on 1 lakh acres in current year Rohtak: The state authorities have pulled up their socks to tackle the problem of waterlogging in agricultural fields, which has been causing heavy losses to farmers for several years. The Haryana Government has prepared schemes involving a total expenditure of Rs 221 crore to siphon the water accumulated in the fields and reuse it. During a meeting with Additional Chief Secretary...

-Financial Express This is of special interest as FY22 was challenging on several fronts, needing govt intervention Budget FY23 will, of course, be important for the content and its take on the economy, given the Union government has to necessarily take a call on how it thinks the third wave has affected the economy and accordingly make provisions in the Budget. But, also important will be the revised numbers for the different estimates...

-The Hindu Business Line At present, panchayats make no contribution to the design of schemes. Their autonomy is negligible. This needs to change Decentralisation has long been recognised as an efficient instrument for promoting economic democracy, and delivering services to meet the needs of people. There are three different channels for decentralisation — political, administrative and fiscal. Political decentralisation promotes trust and cooperation between government agencies and citizens. Administrative decentralisation enables authority...

-Newsclick.in Modi government has restrained spending of various ministries including education, social justice, environment and others. Continuing with its policy of cutting down spending, the central government has spent only 47% of the budgeted amount by the end of September 2021. That’s half of the financial year 2021-22 gone. This is a new low (see graph below), and bizarrely, it comes at a time when tax revenues have picked up. As can be...