-TheWire.in What you lose on the wings, you gain on the roundabouts. With no other major growth investments or policy reforms in the budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman made capital investment the lynchpin of the government’s growth strategy in Budget 2022. Stressing that “the virtuous cycle of investment requires public investment to crowd-in Private investment” she took high moral ground to say that the “public investment must continue to take the lead and...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Blissful ignorance -Jayati Ghosh
-The Telegraph The Union budget is an embodiment of unequal fiscal policy The finance minister and her ministry have betrayed, once again, their lack of understanding of the Indian economy or the conditions under which most Indians are living today. Despite attempts to ‘talk up’ the supposed recovery, the economy is weak and most people are hurting. India has seen one of the biggest increases in the number of poor and hungry people...
More »A Pandemic and a Union Budget: A Study in Three Acts -Suyash Rai
-TheWire.in How did the onset of the pandemic affect already-struggling budget management, how did the second wave affect the measures taken in Budget 2021-22 and what should we look for in the upcoming Budget? The latest estimates suggest that India’s economic output in 2021-22 is likely to, once again, reach the level it was at in 2019-20. If this happens, the pandemic would have delayed India’s journey to prosperity by two years....
More »What We Could Hope For – But Should Not Expect – in Budget 2022-23 -Jayati Ghosh
-TheWire.in Faced with a Union government that puts its own image-building ahead of the good of the people, let us imagine a scenario where Budget 2022-23 is, instead, drafted by a government which is willing to cooperate with the states and respond to the needs of the people. No matter where we look, bad news on the economy just keeps pouring in. Despite all the official and unofficial media attempts to talk up...
More »Govt. Squeezes Spending, Even Though Tax Collections Have Increased -Subodh Varma
-Newsclick.in Modi government has restrained spending of various ministries including education, social justice, environment and others. Continuing with its policy of cutting down spending, the central government has spent only 47% of the budgeted amount by the end of September 2021. That’s half of the financial year 2021-22 gone. This is a new low (see graph below), and bizarrely, it comes at a time when tax revenues have picked up. As can be...
More »