-The Indian Express There are many things that the government can do to improve ease of doing business for kisan and industry. The Budget season is upon us, with a flurry of submissions being made to the finance minister from all quarters. The Budget itself could result in a fine-tuning of tax rates and allocation adjustments against various expenditure heads/ministries. There are implications from these for all sectors. And no less...

-The Indian Express As India inches towards its goal of universal healthcare, there is a need for the Budget to try to ensure that healthcare sector requirements are well funded and the Budget contains provisions that energise accessible, affordable and quality healthcare. Here's what the government can do to boost the healthcare sector. India’s annual healthcare spend hovers around 4 per cent of GDP with high out of pocket expenditure and low...

-The Indian Express India’s premier farm research and education institute has a full-time director after nearly four years. It is an institution whose blockbuster varieties account for more than 95% of the country’s Rs 32,800-crore annual basmati rice export revenues, nearly half of its total wheat area, and a quarter of that sown under mustard. Yet, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI, better known as Pusa Institute) has an annual research Budget...

-Livemint.com MGNREGS could alleviate rural distress but, in its current form, its overall impact on the rural economy is limited in scope With rural distress deepening across India and private consumption growing anaemically, calls for ramping up the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), are growing louder ahead of the upcoming Budget. Proponents of MGNREGS believe that it may be the only ammunition in the government’s arsenal to fight rural...

-Livemint.com Taking into account a likely shortfall in revenue and off-Budget spending, the real fiscal deficit could be as high as 5.5% of GDP in the current fiscal Mumbai: As India’s economic slowdown has intensified, so has the debate on whether the government should stick to fiscal consolidation or run a higher deficit to push growth in the upcoming Budget, due on 1 February. However, data on revenue available so far suggests that...