Comments are no part of COUNTERCURRENTS.ORG repertory.But I am risking a chance on the ground that Ramakrishnan’s eye-opening article on India’s shift to a defence-dependant economy needs greater attention from sober citizens with genuine concern for the future of our society and nation. The big shift to a defence-related economy is definitely going to trigger tectonic shift in the psychology[Read More…]

‘Aatmanirbhar and indigenous’ in Defence : Camouflage for Adani’s deep penetration?   The Defence sector is increasingly a happy hunting ground for  private sector, including foreign capital. Adani too made a big entry with ‘flying’colors. This article in two parts focuses on India’s Defence Budget. Part-1 (‘Defence Budget, a burden on the people, must be pruned’)  published on 23rd  Feb 2023 [Read More…]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Aero India 2023, the Runway to Billion Opportunities. It  “is a wonderful platform to showcase the unlimited potential our country has in defence and aerospace sectors”. The country which was the biggest defence importer for decades now exports defence equipment to 75 countries, he said. “India has rejuvenated its defence sector in the last[Read More…]

An important aspect of fiscal policy relates to the extent to which the various welfare needs of people are being met. One important indicator of this are the allocations made for the social sector. The social sector in the context of the union government of India is generally identified in terms of the following ministries—Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Rural Development,[Read More…]

At a time when minority communities have been passing through difficult times and need reassurance and support, the union budget has come as a rude jolt for them with its big cuts in allocations for such obvious priorities as education and skills. What is more, as the now available data shows, there were very big cuts in the previous year[Read More…]

The union budget 2023-24 has failed to live up to the real needs and hopes of people living in villages, or to prioritize rural areas. A clear decline can be seen in the proportion of the budget going to rural development, agriculture and allied sectors. As the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability has pointed out in its analysis of[Read More…]

Introduction Any budget is complex consisting of many things of varying importance. Often, people focus on things of their direct interest but miss the wider implications that affect them indirectly and may undo any benefit they may get directly. Thus, it is not only important to look at the trees but also the forest. So, it is important to analyse[Read More…]

The most common description of the union budget’s allocations for health sector has been that these have increased marginally. However it would be much more appropriate to say that the health allocations have been glaringly low compared to the officially recognized projections of what is needed. In 2017 the National Health Policy agreed that the health budget of the central[Read More…]

It is an open secret. There is no love lost between India’s religious minorities and the federal government. When Muslims, the most significant minority that makes up 14.2 per cent of the nation’s 1.4 billion people, needed a healing touch, they got a budgetary shock in the form of a significant cut to funds meant for their welfare. The presentation[Read More…]

Child development is increasingly seen as the most important part of the development path. This is particularly true of a country like India where nearly a third of the children under 5 years of age are either stunted or underweight ( as per National Family Health Survey ) , or where  nearly 32 million children are unable to complete school[Read More…]

 This year’s Indian Budget has allocated  Rs 10 lakh crore (121.0 Billion US $) as capital expenditure for  building huge infrastructure during 2023-24. Nearly one fourth of the capital outlay will be spent on constructing new roads and highways and another quarter  to Indian Railways for  running new high speed trains (like Vande Bharat), laying new rail tracks and  10[Read More…]

While most of the budget discussion is understandably concentrated on the financial year ahead of us, it is important to have an understanding also of the previous year’s experiences. An important aspect of this relates to significant cuts made in the allocations of various union ministries and departments of crucial importance during the previous financial year 2022-23, with hardly any[Read More…]

In the budget presented on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that this budget has ushered in an amrit kal period , but for Dalits, tribals and farmers, this budgetary amrit period is a mirage and there is no way to face the challenges like inflation and unemployment in the budget. This budget has once again confirmed that the[Read More…]

The Right to Food Campaign is shocked to see that, at this time of deep crisis the Union Budget 2022-23 has continued to reduce the government spending on the social sector by a huge extent. The negative impact of the economic crisis that began even before the pandemic has fallen disproportionately on those at the bottom of the pyramid. Multiple[Read More…]

A disturbing aspect of the union budget for the year 2023-24 relates to food and nutrition. In the case of most allocations there is a decline compared to the previous year or else there is near stagnation, which also means a decline in real terms after accounting for inflation. Although so many schemes and programs impact the food and nutrition[Read More…]

The union budget for the year has been presented at a time of growing concerns that expectations regarding an inclusive recovery from the COVID and lockdown related economic crisis have not been realized for millions of poor households, while inequalities have been increasing sharply. There were therefore strong reasons for using this budget as an instrument for providing immediate relief[Read More…]