-Newsclick.in The Interim Budget granted a paltry Rs 500 per month to farmers as Relief, fund cuts for dalits, adivasis and minorities, and was silent on agricultural and industrial workers. It was the theatre of absurd in the Lok Sabha on Friday as replacement Finance Minister Piyush Goyal presented the Interim Budget through an election speech, tom-tomming the so-called achievements of the Narendra Modi government over the past five years, offering an...

-Outlook "The Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have waived farmers' loans as promised," he said, adding, "If a Congress-led government comes to power in Delhi, farm loans will be waived across the country." Congress president Rahul Gandhi Sunday said his party would waive farm loans and give a big push to the food processing industry if voted to power in the Lok Sabha elections Alleging that the Centre's crop insurance...

-TheWire.in The aggregate macroeconomic impact of this Budget cannot really be assessed, since the actual fiscal stance is now so opaque. Let’s get one thing clear. This is not an interim Budget, whatever the government finally agreed to call it. The sweeping promises made on both expenditure and taxation fronts are well beyond the limited minor changes that are supposed to be allowed in a vote-on-account or interim Budget. For a government that...

-Networkideas.org It’s that time of year again – the time when all eyes turn to those magic numbers, the actual and proposed fiscal deficits of the central government as shares of GDP. Breathless news anchors will interrogate financial investors on what the numbers mean, and why 3.5 per cent or 3.7 per cent is fatally worse than, say, 3.4 per cent or 3.2 per cent or less. Everyone will breathe a...

-PTI The Union Cabinet is expected to soon approve a Relief package for farmers grappling with falling prices of their crops and to tackle distress in the farm sector, according to sources. The likely Relief package is seen as an attempt to assuage the farming community’s discontent ahead of the general elections. “...The Agriculture Ministry’s proposal on addressing income deficit syndrome of small and marginal farmers is on the agenda (at the Cabinet...