Representatives of around 20 civil society organizations and NGOs met the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley as part of pre-budget consultation on social sector on 12 January, 2016. Immediately after the pre-budget consultation, a press conference was held by some of these organizations to convey the media persons what demands/ suggestions were made.   Subrat Das, Executive Director of Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA, http://www.cbgaindia.org/) informed us that during...

-PTI New Delhi: Direct transfer of kerosene subsidy to the bank accounts of users will help in better targeting of the benefits to those who actually deserve it, the Finance Ministry said today. The government had last night said it will roll out the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for kerosene from April 1 where the users will buy the cooking fuel at market rate but will get financial support directly in...

-Business Standard The government is holding talks with states providing cashless health insurance, such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat After providing life cover and accident cover, the government is now working on a universal health insurance plan. To begin with, it will provide a seamless solution to the existing cashless health schemes in states by integrating those with the Centre's direct benefits transfer (DBT) platform. Later, these would be scaled up. "Encouraged...

-Business Standard Chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian discusses the Budget, goods and services tax, Centre-state relationship and larger issues facing the economy with Dilasha Seth, Arup Roychoudhury and Indivjal Dhasmana. Edited excerpts: * In the mid-year economic analysis, you talked of revisiting the fiscal numbers for 2016-17. Is it a view of the chief economic advisor (CEA) or that of the government? I see my role as a member of the government. I...

-The Financial Express After two years of dithering, Uttar Pradesh is implementing the food security law from the New Year’s Day. After two years of dithering, Uttar Pradesh is implementing the food security law from the New Year’s Day. While 24 districts, mostly in western UP, will roll out the scheme on Friday, the remaining 51 districts will join the bandwagon on March 1. According to Sudhir Garg, principal secretary, Department of...