-Firstpost.com I fear this budget. I fear that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley might announce an idea that I have liked and advocated: The idea of a Universal Basic Income. I fear it because Jaitley may use this label to justify something quite the opposite. In the process, he might ruin a good idea. Straws in the wind indicate that he might try something to this effect. Demonetisation was part of a grand...

-The Indian Express Post-demonetisation, a reversal of the slowdown would require enhanced public spending. It doesn’t appear to be forthcoming. Given the economic uncertainty around the world and the demonetisation-induced domestic downturn in the Indian economy, preparing this year’s Union budget was never going to be an easy task. But the Modi government seems determined to make its task harder. It has managed to generate expectations — that will almost inevitably remain...

-The Hindu The idea of a Basic Income is not new. The first known suggestion on an unconditional universal Basic Income for all adults regardless of other income sources was from Thomas More. Centuries later, in 1918, Bertrand Russell discussed a Basic Income sufficient for necessities as central to the social model combining the advantages of anarchism and socialism that he argued for in Proposed Roads to Freedom. “A certain small...

-NDTV A recent headline in Quartz, an otherwise serious media agency, claims that Jammu and Kashmir is the first state in India to "commit to a universal Basic Income" (UBI). A glance at the original source quickly negates this claim: it is based on nothing more than "seeds of a thought" (sic) from the Finance Minister of J&K about possible cash transfers for a small minority of poor households. This is...

-The Indian Express Finance Ministry says bank account holders must submit PAN by Feb 28 New Delhi: IN A new set of rules notified on Saturday, the Ministry of Finance has asked banks and post offices to furnish details of cash deposits made during April 1-November 9 last year for amounts adding up to Rs 2.5 lakh or more per person, in all accounts other than current accounts. For current accounts, banks and...