-Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) brings out a draft version of this publication within 24 hours of the presentation of Union Budget in Parliament every year. The objective of this publication is to facilitate an informed discussion on the Union Budget, particularly around social sectors, agriculture, employment and vulnerable sections of the population. 2019 being the general election year, our Parliament witnessed two...

-Livemint.com * FM vows to invest widely in agriculture infrastructure, but offers little to revive rural income and demand * In terms of new schemes, the budget announced Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana for the fisheries sector and another to boost traditional industries In March 2018, Rakesh Sangwan, 27, a farmer in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri, stopped watering his tomato plants. The crop slowly withered away and, subsequently, it was mowed down by a...

-The Hindu Finance Bill provides for rise of Rs.5/litre While the Budget has effected a hike in the duties and cess on petrol and diesel amounting to Rs.2 per litre, the Government has given itself the leeway for a further increase of levies by Rs.5 per litre, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said. While Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a Rs.1/litre increase in the Special Additional Duty (SAD) on petrol and diesel...

-The Indian Express One notable thing was the absence of emphasis on doubling farmers’ real incomes by 2022. Perhaps the reality that this is an uphill task has dawned on the Government — it may not achieve even half the target. In her first budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reminded us of the famous quote from M K Gandhi, that the “soul of India lives in villages”. She also said...

-Frontline.in The mergers of small primary schools with low enrolment rates with bigger ones may have saved money for the Jharkhand Government, but it has wreaked havoc on the lives of children in remote areas who find it difficult to commute to their new schools. It is a little past seven in the morning, time for children to get ready for school. But for nine-year-old Phoolmati Kumari, in Tengrapathar village of Jharkhand’s...