-The Asian Age As one listened to finance minister Arun Jaitley deliver his third Budget speech, the overwhelming impression that was sought to be created was along anticipated lines. Here was a government whose heart was bleeding for the hapless farmer toiling in the fields, the agriculturist whose livelihood has been all but destroyed by two successive monsoon failures. Here was an administration whose representatives were concerned about the “curse of...

-The Hindu The Finance Minister’s prescriptions are a classic case of being unable to see the wood for the trees, be it on the tax proposals, the rural outreach or the bank bailout. It was a marathon achievement: 12,187 words in 111 minutes. True, there were no interruptions; the Finance Minister virtually sent the House to sleep. I have listened to many Budget speeches; and I cannot say that Dr. Manmohan Singh...

-The Hindu   With an eye on the upcoming elections in different States, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has declared that he is presenting a Budget that provides “additional resources for vulnerable sections, rural areas and social and physical infrastructure”. But since aggregate expenditure in nominal terms is slated to rise by just 10.8 per cent between this financial year and the next, that seems difficult to believe. Consider, for example, the...

-Quartz India “If we have to promote the development of our country, then our mission has to be skill development and skilled India,” said prime minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech in 2014. “Millions and millions of Indian youth should acquire the skills… which could contribute towards making India a modern country.” The optimism reflected in the prime minister’s words is encouraging, but is it actually doable? After all, India’s education...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to send her to school. A newly elected mukhiya of a panchayat in Bokaro district, has come up with a unique method to force villagers to send children to school regularly by withholding ration supplies and other welfare benefits from the family if the student doesn't clock 80 per cent attendance. Mukhiya Ajay Kumar Singh (40)...