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Global Worries Help Arun Jaitley Pay Big Bills
People watch a telecast of the annual budget, on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Budget remains the key turning point in the financial year, for everyone. India is expected to save Rs...
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Jobs, Rural Development, Social-sector Investment–Budget 2016’s Focus
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while presenting his third budget today, said the government will do away with plan (asset creation, etc.) and non-plan (salaries, interest payments, etc.) budgeting...
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Record Farm Funding, Up 84%; Crises Also Record-Breaking
Continuing the poetic trend seen in budget speeches, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley started with these lines, signalling the fiscal path of his government towards budget management during a global...
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Jaitley’s Plan To Ease Life For Small-Business Owners
Thousands of small-business owners will be freed of many account and audit requirements, as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley raised the turnover limit from Rs one crore to Rs two crore, while...
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How 52 Million May Depend On Rural Jobs Plan For 20 Years
With a 14% rise in funding for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in Budget 2016-17, the world’s largest state-run jobs plan continues to be India’s top poverty...
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China’s Vocational Training 16 Times India’s: Can Budget Push Help?
There is a shortage of 100,000 trainers to implement skill-development programmes across the country, according to data provided to the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) on Februrary 24, 2016,...
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Primary Education Spending Declines, So Does Quality
Rs 1,15,625 crore ($17.7 billion) has been spent on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)—a national programme for universal elementary education—over the last five years, but the quality of learning has...
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Why Only 3.2% Of India’s 50,000 Orphans Will Find Parents
Six months into the new adoption rules adopted by the Women and Child Development ministry headed by Maneka Gandhi, there is good news, there is bad news, and some disquieting data. The good news...
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New Report Indicates Scale Of India’s Exclusion From Progress
* Up to 43% of women in the working age (about 153 million) in India only do domestic work, indicating the scale of their exclusion from the workforce. * A quarter of Indians (300 million) are...
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12% Of Lok Sabha Female, Highest Ever–And Inadequate
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a group photograph at the valedictory session of the National Conference of Women Legislators, at the Central Hall of Parliament, in New Delhi on March 06, 2016. From...
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5 Key Lessons About Women And Work In India
While marginally more women work in India than in Pakistan (27% and 25% respectively), Pakistan’s female labour-force participation rate is growing–as India’s is declining. The percentage of women...
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4.5% Of Budget On Plans For Women. Enough?
Spending on women–who comprise 48% of India’s 1.2 billion people–in union budget 2016-17 is Rs 90,624.76 crore ($13.3 billion) or 4.5% of government spending. This is a decline from 5% a decade ago...
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Digital Inequality Warning Sounded For Urban India
Recent indications that India’s Internet use is low and not reflected in the numbers of mobile-phone connections and growth are buttressed by a new study that points to digital inequality in urban...
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Groundwater Levels Plunge, Contamination Rises, Crisis Grows
Borewell rigs are often seen in India’s hinterlands, as groundwater levels plunge, with little or no chance of recharge. Kolhapur (Maharashtra), Delhi: Five years ago, when Ramakant Desai, 55, hired...
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How Mysore Beat Chandigarh To Be India’s Cleanest City
Chandigarh, India’s first planned city–known for wide roads laid out in geometrical precision and large, green spaces that adorn neatly arranged rectangular neighbourhoods, called sectors–faces an...
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Farmers Tax Exempt—So Is Company With Rs 215-Cr Profit
It’s reasonably well known that income from agriculture attracts no tax in India. What isn’t quite as well known is that of more than 400,000 taxpayers claiming exemption for agricultural income...
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Jaitley’s $13-Bn For Water Plan That’s Failed 66 Million Farmers
A two-decade old Central programme to finish incomplete irrigation projects has failed 66 million Indian farmers and halted the economic progress of 350 million Indians, according to an IndiaSpend...
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Only 6 Of 21 Indian Cities Financially Independent
Mumbai is India’s best-run city, followed by Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Pune and Bhopal, according to a new survey. Mumbai scored five of a possible 10 points on financial sustainability and 6.7...
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Centre’s Health, Education Spending Declines Over 2 Years
The money allocated for key centrally sponsored social schemes—Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA or universal education programme) and National Health...
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5,275 Wilful Defaulters (+ Mallya) Owe Banks Rs 56,621 Crore
An electrician puts lights on the logo of State Bank of India at its main branch in Mumbai, India. The money that wilful defaulters owe Indian banks has grown nine-fold over 13 years. Bangalore:...
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