-The Hindu Major welfare schemes have faced cuts and deductions, it says. Instead of taking bold steps to counter rising hunger following the national lockdown last year, the Union Budget has responded by introducing “cuts and deductions” and “abdicating its responsibility in ensuring social security,” the Right to Food Campaign said on Wednesday. According to an analysis, the allocations for important food and nutrition programmes such as the POSHAN (or ICDS scheme) and...

-The Indian Express Investment in human capital, science and research remains the Achilles heel of Indian policy. The Budget allocation for agriculture research and education has constantly declined from 0.31 per cent of the gross value added of agriculture and allied activities in 2011-12 to 0.24 per cent now Seven years of low crude prices, five years of above normal monsoon topped by good agriculture production, and everything looked positive for a...

-NDTV blog Nirmala Sitharaman said: "We have spent, we have spent and we have spent." She had every reason to claim that, since the Budget numbers show that the centre spent ₹ 4.1 lakh crore, or 13 percent above what it had planned for last year. Additional spending will continue this year: expenditure is estimated to go up by 14.5 percent in 2021-2022 compared to last year, even though the government's...

-Deccan Herald Many of us have grown hearing the story of how Dronacharya is slain in the Mahabharata by a half-truth Many of us have grown hearing the story of how Dronacharya is slain in the Mahabharata by a half-truth. On Krishna’s advice, Bhima kills an elephant that bears the same name as Ashwattama, Drona’s son, and Yudhishtira announces that Ashwattama, Drona’s son, and Yudhishtira announces that Ashwattama, the elephant, is dead,...

-Hindustan Times Several announcements — a bad bank, the proposal for a development financial institution, and bank recapitalisation — aim at reforming the economy. But these will not respond to the structural inequalities caused by the pandemic Covid-19 is a crisis like no other. And, expectedly, it has wreaked havoc on the Government of India (GoI)’s financial arithmetic as it struggled to deal with collapsing tax revenues and increased expenditure pressures. Therefore,...