-The Asian Age Sonia Gandhi’s economic and political ideology may have apparently triumphed over that of Manmohan Singh. The neo-liberal Finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram may be conveying an impression that he’s turned socialist with a vengeance by increasing taxes on the rich in the run-up to the 16th general elections. But the truth is that Mr Chidambaram has made certain assumptions about subsidies, inflation and the expected growth of gross domestic product...

-Outlook Rural Development Ministry could spend only Rs 55,000 crore out of the budget estimate of Rs 75,000 crore for its various flagship programmes in the current fiscal and Minister Jairam Ramesh says he owns responsibility for it. Despite the poor spending, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today allocated Rs 80,000 crore to the key social sector Ministry in this year's budget. Ramesh blamed "serious administrative weaknesses in the poorest states of India"-- Bihar,...

-The Business Standard FM allocates Rs 10,000 cr to implement the programme; this is apart from the usual food subsidy requirement of Rs 80,000 cr for the year The most ambitious social security programme of the government, the National Food Security Bill, got a leg-up in the 2013-14 Budget, with Finance Minister P Chidambaram allocating Rs 10,000 crore for implementing it. This allocation is over and above the usual food subsidy requirement of...

-First Post While Finance Minister P Chidambaram played the knight in the shining armour role to the hilt, going all out to woo the Indian woman – with an all-woman bank, the ‘Nirbhaya’ fund and an empathetic lecture on the girl child- after the shock value wears out, we are only left with measures which at best might only scrape the tip of the iceberg that is women’s development and security...

-Outlook The CPI(M) today castigated the government for foregoing over Rs 5.73 lakh crore as tax revenues by granting tax concessions to the rich, saying the amount was Rs 53,000 crore more than the fiscal deficit. "The budget proposals will further enrich the rich and impoverish the poor," senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters while reacting to the 2013-14 Budget. Quoting data presented in the budget, he said the aggregated revenue foregone...