Token relief to individual taxpayers will cost the exchequer Rs. 4,500 crore In a “pragmatic and domestic growth-oriented” budgetary exercise aimed at shoring up investor confidence and investment, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday sought to tap indirect taxes, especially service tax, to rake in an additional Rs. 45,940 crore into his kitty. Presenting the budget for 2012-13 in Parliament, Mr. Mukherjee provided a token relief to individual taxpayers that will cost...

-IANS Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Friday announced a hike of over 21 per cent in the budget allocation for providing free and compulsory education to children below 14 years.  "I proposed an increase in allocation by 21.7 per cent for RTE ( Right to Education) -Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to Rs.25,555 crore," Mukherjee said in parliament.  The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is implemented in partnership with state governments and covers nearly 192 million children across...

-PTI Budget allocation for central government hospitals in the capital has been increased for the coming fiscal, with AIIMS getting Rs 1,124 crore which is nearly 6% more as compared to the last year's Rs 1,062.35 crore. This is followed by the Safdarjung Hospital which will receive Rs 467.55 crore this year, which is 27% more in comparison to the allocation of Rs 366.88 crore last year. The next in the row of...

-The Hindu As it stands on the threshold of the Twelfth Plan, India has a historic opportunity to elevate education and healthcare as the strongest pillars of its future development. Yearning for life-building education is unprecedented today. Yet, as Amartya Sen pointed out last year, the system remains deeply unjust. Access to excellence is open to those who can afford it, while the less-affluent majority has been left behind without even...

Ten years after the killings in Gujarat, Narendra Modi has neither expressed regret nor has he been held accountable for those mass deaths. Where do we go from here? Anand Teltumbde (tanandraj@gmail.com) is a writer and civil rights activist with the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights, Mumbai.   Just thinking of it, a shiver runs down my spine. I had my own brush with how the Hindutva gangs carried out the...