Quite often it is argued by mainstream economists that a sizeable chunk of the Union Budget every year is wasted because the Government spends that on food and fertiliser subsidies. The burgeoning size of these two subsidies relative to the entire budget as well as the gross domestic product (GDP) is often used to build the argument that economic as well as environmental sustainability of the country is at stake...

School meals ensure nutrition for millions of vulnerable children across the world. Almost 370 million children worldwide are covered by school feeding programmes. While 100 million school children benefitted from the noon meal scheme in India prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries like Brazil (48 million), China (44 million), South Africa (9 million) and Nigeria (9 million) too run similar programmes for school children. However, an estimated 39 billion in-school...

-Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability Despite considerable progress made over the decade, India still carries the burden of undernutrition with 38.4, 21, and 35.8 per cent of children under five facing stunting, wasting, and underweight respectively, more than 50 per cent of children and women being anaemic, and 31.5 per cent of women having less than normal body mass index (BMI). Interventions by the government to combat undernutrition are covered under...

-Press release by People's Budget Initiative (PBI, http://www.pbiindia.net/) New Delhi: People's Budget Initiative (PBI) is a coalition of civil society organisations from across the country which promotes people’s voice in policy making processes related to government budgets in India. As part of its campaign on ‘Budget Justice for Disadvantaged Sections’, a national consultation on Budget Justice: Agenda for the Next Five Years was organized in New Delhi on 14th September, 2018....

-Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) Union Budget 2018-19 is the fifth and the final full-year budget of the current ruling dispensation. The major plank on which this government was elected in 2014 with an exceptional mandate were issues of development related to reducing corruption, generating meaningful employment opportunities, tackling inflation (especially food inflation, an issue plaguing the economy at that point of time), reducing inequality, and pushing the economy...