-The Indian Express Far from reducing opacity in how politics is financed, this new vehicle merely legitimizes it. It is an open secret that political finance in India is, to put it mildly, a sordid affair. When it comes to political contributions, opacity reigns. The situation is not much better when it comes to expenditure, as candidates regularly declare laughably small amounts of campaign spending in order to give the appearance...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Can Budget 2018 Set a Road Map For a Truly 'Good and Simple Tax'? -Rajul Awasthi
-TheWire.in While the nitty-gritties of GST Work are handled by the council, slippage in revenues are a result of poor design, which is why a road map for reforming the GST is needed. I don’t envy finance minister Arun Jaitley. The fiscal situation is looking rather grim, with the fiscal deficit target amount for the entire year having already been exceeded by 12 percentage points, with a full quarter of the fiscal...
More »Shaktikanta Das, the former secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, interviewed by Richa Mishra (The Hindu Business Line)
-The Hindu Business Line Who would know better than Shaktikanta Das, the former secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, the ‘Good, Bad, and Ugly’ side of demonetisation and GST, the two factors that disrupted the balance sheets of not only the government and corporates but also that of the common man. Das would like to call it “positive disruption” as he believes that the turbulence caused was short-term, and that...
More »Some red flags in the economy numbers: Agriculture is the most alarming -RN Bhaskar
-MoneyControl.com When agriculture’s GVA growth climbed from -0.2% in 2014-15, to 0.7% in 2015-16, everyone expected agriculture to continue doing well. This was confirmed by this growth rate further rising to 4.9% in 2016-17. But what happened now? So it is finally official. The fears that most people had kept suppressed – about India witnessing an economic slowdown – have been realised. The Central Statistical Office (CSO) came out last week with...
More »Aadhaar whistleblower who first called UIDAI -Rachna Khaira
-The Tribune Village-Level Entrepreneur reported data theft to authority, no one took heed Jalandhar: Thirty-two-year-old Bharat Bhushan Gupta is the man who reported the matter of illegitimate Aadhaar data access to The Tribune, which was followed up by the paper with an investigation of its own, aided by this whistleblower. However, he had first attempted to take an even more appropriate channel, approaching the UIDAI. The Jalandhar-based Village-Level Entrepreneur (VLE) was on December...
More »