-The Indian Express What is needed is ample income support for households and firms now so that the recovery is not hamstrung by excessively damaged balance sheets Even a cursory reading of Brazil’s recent history will confirm that the adoption of the all-encompassing cap on government spending in late 2016 was critical in rescuing the economy from the crisis of 2014-16. After riding the commodity boom of the 2000s, economic mismanagement and a...
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A crisis without villains -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express Current economic contraction is different from previous ones. Governments should borrow and spend India has never experienced negative economic growth since 1979-80, and before that in 1972-73, 1965-66 and 1957-58. All these were drought years with 1957-58 also registering a significant Balance of Payments (BOP) deterioration and 1979-80 witnessing the second global oil shock following the Iranian Revolution. The real GDP decline of 5-10 per cent that various agencies are...
More »GST cess falls 42% short in FY20
-The Hindu Compensation for last fiscal paid to States using previous years’ balance of cess The Centre made up a 42% shortfall in Goods and Services Tax compensation cess collection in 2019-20 by using balance of cess from previous years, plus a transfer from the Consolidated Fund of India. Meanwhile, the GST Council, which was slated to meet this month to discuss the possibility of market borrowing to meet likely future shortfalls,...
More »Why India’s trade surplus is a warning signal -Parthapratim Pal and Partha Ray
-The Hindu Business Line Despite the lockdown, India’s trade balance in April and May turned positive. This has been achieved by a sharper decline in imports, pointing towards a contraction of demand in the real economy The RBI has released India’s Balance of Payments data for the fourth quarter (January-March) of 2019-20. It shows that during this quarter, India has managed a small current account surplus which is around 0.1 per cent...
More »Civil society demands for increase in budgetary allocation under MGNREGA to clear pending wages
-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated 31st January, 2020 Rural distress has risen to alarming levels. As per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of 2017-18, rural unemployment stands at 8 percent (statement 30 in Section 3.7, PLFS). In conjunction with skyrocketing food inflation levels, this is a serious concern. The situation is much worse for the landless depending on casual manual labour who constitute more than half the rural...
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