-Newsclick.in The significant fall in government expenditure during the lockdown is just the opposite of what the Modi government should have done. A striking aspect of the 24% decline in India’s GDP in the first quarter of 2020-21 compared with the first quarter of the last fiscal year is the decline by 10.3% in public administration, defence and other public services. This is a sector where the GDP (gross domestic product) is...

-National Herald Universal cash transfer to non-income tax households is imperative apart from covering investment on infrastructure, including social infrastructure like healthcare A striking aspect of the 24 per cent decline in GDP in the first quarter of 2020-21 compared to the previous year’s first quarter is the decline by 10.3 per cent in public administration, defence and other public services. This is a sector where the GDP is estimated not by...

-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...

-The Telegraph The slump in the GDP and the pain ahead The -23.9 per cent shrinkage in the April-June GDP is not a surprise as nearly half the period witnessed a national lockdown. It’s also not surprising that this loss is the world’s steepest for India’s lockdown was the most stringent and the accompanying fiscal policy response the weakest. But the quarter per cent slump did surprise most analysts who have since...

Huge sums of money are allocated for the rural and agrarian sectors by the Union Government in its annual budget every year, and rightly so. But in the absence of an adequate number of officials in rural areas, can the various schemes and programmes of the government be implemented properly? We will find the answer if we think about this issue deeply and the answer that would emerge should bother...