-Scroll.in/ The Third Pole Flash-flood warnings routed through NGOs are giving border villages precious lead-time to escape the wrath of suddenly rising rivers. In the last few weeks of June, a series of WhatsApp messages were sent from Bhutan to India to warn cross-border friends downstream of the Aai, Saralbhanga and Manas rivers about cloud-bursts, swollen rivers and possible flash floods affecting people in the Indian state of Assam. Although originating from officials,...
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Government keeps options open for more fuel price hikes -TCA Sharad Raghavan
-The Hindu Finance Bill provides for rise of Rs.5/litre While the Budget has effected a hike in the duties and cess on petrol and diesel amounting to Rs.2 per litre, the government has given itself the leeway for a further increase of levies by Rs.5 per litre, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said. While Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a Rs.1/litre increase in the Special Additional Duty (SAD) on petrol and diesel...
More »With little allocation for agriculture, budget sends a worrying signal -Ashok Gulati
-The Indian Express One notable thing was the absence of emphasis on doubling farmers’ real incomes by 2022. Perhaps the reality that this is an uphill task has dawned on the government — it may not achieve even half the target. In her first budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reminded us of the famous quote from M K Gandhi, that the “soul of India lives in villages”. She also said...
More »Budget 2019 Sorely Lacks a Coherent Vision for Long-Term Growth -MK Venu
-TheWire.in While Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden budget hit all the right political notes, its fiscal math is far fuzzier. The first budget of the Narendra Modi government 2.0 is very high on political rhetoric around empowering the poorest in ‘New India’, but does not have a clear road map of how a fully-funded welfare state will be sustained without a robust revival in growth, based on the twin engines of investment and consumption...
More »Falling far short of the goal -CP Chandrasekhar
-The Hindu The rhetoric in the Budget of accelerated, inclusive and sustainable development receives only limited financial backing The general election is over and a new government has been formed. But the campaign does not seem to end. More than an hour of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s maiden Budget speech was largely devoted to underlining what she claimed were the remarkable economic achievements of the previous government. Given that legacy, she presented...
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