-Livemint.com Increased funding to go into irrigation schemes, crop insurance, national e-market for farm produce, pulse production and interest subsidy New Delhi: In a major push for agriculture in the Union budget, funding for the recently launched crop insurance scheme Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) has been more than doubled from Rs.2,589 crore in 2015-16 (budget estimate) to Rs.5,500 crore for 2016-17. The budget announced on Monday placed a renewed focus...

-Livemint.com Pro-poor and yet not populist can be the single defining strand of this year’s Union budget The run-up to this year’s Union budget, especially the past one week, has taken place in the backdrop of an unprecedented, vicious political confrontation between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition. Together with the hit-wicket tendencies of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), it probably exaggerated the magnitude of every challenge...

-FirstPost.com Preparation of budgets is traditionally an incremental process: the first railway budget of the present government took off from the landscape sketched in the 12th Five Year Plan. Expansion, modernisation and development of railway infrastructure were to be given thrust through 3Ps: Public-Private Partnerships. Budget 2016-17, however, promises a new horizon on two fronts: overcoming challenges through 3Rs: Reorganising, Restructuring and Rejuvenating Indian railways, and introducing pillars of strategy, including zero-based...

-PTI Budget 2016: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley faces a tough task of balancing the needs of farm sector as well as the industry when he presents his third and challenging Budget tomorrow as he seeks to garner resources to boost public spending for higher growth amid global headwinds. On the income tax front, the Budget may continue with the status quo on the tax slabs while it may tinker with the exemptions. Rising...

-The Indian Express Government must address the stress in the rural economy, seen in falling wages and incomes, which could reverse recent progress in rural areas Last year in February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had exhorted voters to vote for his party in the Delhi assembly election, claiming that his victory in the general election had brought luck to the country. Unfortunately, the voters of urban Delhi were not convinced and...