-Newsclick.in As a result of the strike almost 1,29,500 Branch Post offices have been reported as closed on May 22. In an unprecedented show of courage and unity, nearly three lakh Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) employees of the Postal Department went on an indefinite strike on May 22. Their grievances - long pending demands of the Gramin Dak Sevaks for regularization as government employees and the ill-implementation of the recommendations of Kamalesh Chandra...
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Balancing conflicting claims -C Rangarajan & DK Srivastava
-The Hindu The 15th Finance Commission has to take a call on the degree of equalisation that’s feasible In the context of the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission (FFC), certain key aspects relate to (a) the mandate for using the 2011 population; (b) ‘whether revenue deficit grants’ be given at all; (c) the impact of the goods and services tax (GST) on the finances of the Centre and...
More »Icrier Study: Agri research & education funding heavily skewed
-Financial Express Among the six states studied by Icrier, Gujarat spends the most on agriculture R&E (0.59%), followed by Bihar (0.50%), Punjab (0.41%), Odisha (0.25%), Uttar Pradesh (0.17%) and Madhya Pradesh (0.24%). The government’s expenditure on agricultural research and extension education services is not only very low but also heavily skewed in favour of crops, even as the dairy sector has a rapidly increasing share in the gross value of output...
More »An open letter to Finance Ministers -TM Thomas Isaac
-The Hindu Political alignments should not come in the way of defending the fiscal rights of States My fellow Finance Ministers in the States, I hope you will agree that the award of the Finance Commission is vital to State finances. Some of us who met initially at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and later at Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, are worried about the implications of the terms of reference (ToR) of the Finance Commission...
More »How State budgets will fare if petrol, diesel are brought under GST -Rohan Abraham
-The Hindu While consumers will be glad to see their fuel bills slashed by the advent of a favourable rate structure under the GST, State governments will have to contend with an erosion in tax revenue. At the time of writing, petrol was retailing at Rs.82.48/litre in Mumbai, roughly 62% more than the Rs.50.8/litre Pakistanis shell out for a tank of gas. This is despite the fact that crude oil prices are...
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