-The Hindu The Budget overlooks the fact that human capabilities are as important as physical capital for economic Growth and the quality of life. It goes back to the days when Growth and development sounded synonymous, physical capital was thought to be the key, and human capital took a back seat Once upon a time, around the end of the Second World War, there was a naive view in development economics that...

-Business Standard The debate over the land ordinance is best located in facts, not hyperbole Somewhat like the winter chill, the season of convenient mythologies continues to hold Delhi in its lingering grip. The latest manifestation is the spat over land acquisition, rendered additionally bewildering by the expedient of the Treasury and Opposition benches having swapped sides between the time the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)'s much derided land Act was passed...

-The Indian Express The Union budget is largely about the intentions and policies of the government of the day, as well as the arithmetic of resource mobilisation and allocation to achieve certain ends in the economy. The diagnostics of various economic problems and their probable solutions are generally found in the Economic Survey. The Economic Survey clearly indicates that Growth in agri-GDP in FY15 has collapsed to just 1.1 per cent, while...

-Hindustan Times Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's claims of already having achieved an economic turnaround, made in his budget speech, evoke suspicion. Inflation is certainly down and so is the current account deficit, but that has almost entirely to do with the crash in international crude oil prices, which have fallen from $110 per barrel in June 2014 to around $57 per barrel currently. In fact, rather than passing on the full...

-Hindustan Times The government slashed plan expenditure by about 20% in the 2015-16 budget amid fiscal concerns, hitting spending on social sectors such as education and women's empowerment that were the focus areas of the previous UPA administration. In the 2014-15 budget, Arun Jaitley allocated Rs. 5,75,000 crore for plan expenditure, or money that goes towards creation of productive assets, but could spare only Rs. 4,65,277 crore this time. This is also...