The Budget would have been the perfect vehicle to introduce some bold initiatives.
That opportunity has been lost through this Budget, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
'The experience so far is a shocking example of how critical scheme of national importance can be brought into disrepute by inefficient and badly designed implementation,' says Dr Madhav Godbole, the former Union home secretary.
The demand for OROP has been projected as an unambiguous issue but a good policy argument must have a sound economic element.
'The Swedish government would consider who will live, who will not die, in rationing coronavirus healthcare!' 'This means the 'biological age' would supersede the patient's chronological age as a potential guideline,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
Policy lays out a 5-year road map seeking creation of 3.5 mn jobs and promoting 10,000 start-ups.
Will Arundhati Bhattacharya be the RBI's first woman governor? Or will Urjit Patel succeed Raghuram Rajanas RBI governor when his term ends on September 4?
'If you look at household hospitalisation compensation, then you will find only one-third is hospitalisation. Two-thirds is outpatient.' 'Even if you provide Rs 5 lakh coverage, people will still have a tough time.'
Courts in five countries including the US and the UK have given recognition to an arbitration award that asked India to return $1.4 billion to Cairn Energy plc - a step that now opens the possibility of the British firm seizing Indian assets in those countries if New Delhi does not pay, sources said. Cairn Energy had moved courts in nine countries to enforce its $1.4 billion arbitral award against India, which the company won after a dispute with the country's revenue authority over a retroactively applied capital gains tax. Of these, the December 21 award from a three-member tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands has been recognised and confirmed by courts in the US, the UK, Netherlands, Canada and France, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
Whilst substantive public allocations have been made in the infrastructure sector, this strategy is plateauing due to the fiscal deficit constraint, capacity limitation of statal implementing agencies, the declining ability of PSUs, and the precarious situation of the Railways' operating ratio. It is, thus, high time to get the policy compass to point at rejuvenating private sector investments in infrastructure, says Vinayak Chatterjee.
'The shadow banks are currently facing a liquidity and solvency crisis.' 'The danger is that it could potentially engulf the entire financial system because shadow banks have borrowed huge amount of money from banks, mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance companies.'
Banks in India must have a modern approach, suggests a panel comprising of banking bigwigs.
'India's economic fundamentals are much too strong to be affected by his resignation,' says B S Raghavan.
Growth in India will pick up from current levels, says LEO Puri, managing mirector, UTI Asset Management Company.
Ramesh Menon, the veteran journalist suggests Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi what he should do if he wants to win 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
'Nirmalaji's Budget announcements have long-term implications and are not backed by enough money when the short-term outlook looks bleak,' notes T N C Rajagopalan.
Most mainstream researchers agree that good governance is a necessary condition for growth.
He said RSS men were planted in each ministry.
Lower revenue collection puts upward pressure on government borrowing, ensuring that it deviates from the glided path of debt reduction
Agricultural incomes can be taxed without hurting farmers, as a substantial section - the small and marginal ones - will remain outside the tax net simply because their incomes are likely to be below the basic exemption limit of Rs 250,000 per annum that is extended to all taxpayers in India, finds out Ishan Bakshi.
Last week, the government had introduced a fresh round of austerity measures, including bans on first class travel, creation of new posts and holding meetings in five-star facilities.
While most brokers have upgraded their backend systems to trade, their front-end systems have not been upgraded. They are not compliant with Sebi's interop circular of November 2018 and no one seems to be either aware of this, nor has anything been done about it so far, explains Debashis Basu.
'We get to know secrets such as some of India's top-rated firms do not always make payments when due and many State-owned, listed, enterprises that borrow in bond markets default regularly.' 'Without naming the bank, he says that ever-greening of poor loans by a part of India's shadow banking lay at the doorstep of India's banking, notably 'one private bank'.' Viral Acharya's Quest for Restoring Financial Stability in India won't be music to many ears, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Has the Modi government ensured that the MEA keeps abreast of the times, asks Ambassador Vivek Katju.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said RBI and the government are in continuous dialogue and that relationship will continue.
Mudra Bank will be a Rs 20,000-crore institution, which would "primarily be responsible for refinancing all micro-finance institutions.
Decision-making has to be much quicker, the finance minister said.
His likable boy-next-door face and casual approach to public speaking have a unique appeal for the younger generation, but it stops there, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Chief Minister MK Stalin has shown that he is cut from a different cloth when it comes to embracing what is current, modern and absolutely necessary. Thus, even while retaining the spirit and content of the pan-Tamil, Dravidian socio-political and socio-economic ideology to the 't', his government has also acknowledged the need to accepting scientifically-proven facts in operational matters, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Reduce the government stake in public sector banks to 33 per cent, recommends A K Bhattacharya
Rahul Khullar's guiding credo was that a civil servant must never lose sight of his client: The little guy. The evil men are those who are decision-makers but abdicate their responsibility of taking decisions, leading people to lose confidence in public institutions.
'...Unless we muck up our policies.' 'We have to become a modernised economy.' 'Our institutions should be stronger. And that is most important.' 'The rule of law should prevail and contracts should be enforced.' 'Above all, we have to recognise the importance of globalisation.' 'It is in our favour at this stage. We should grow and become globally competitive.'
Bhargavi Zaveri & Radhika Pandey explains how complexities of foreign exchange rules are used by India Inc to dispute contractual obligations.
Inviting private sector in Indian Railways is a good idea.
Multiple organisations of different kinds with overlapping goals would be a dream situation for those who believe in competition and innovation.
Many in the US establishment must hope that the crisis would put the brakes on China's growing military might. Well, it ain't gonna happen, says T T Ram Mohan, who was appointed a member of the prime minister's economic advisory council on Wednesday, October 28, 2021.
As India emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, the ninth budget under the Modi government, including an interim one, is widely expected to focus on boosting spending on job creation and rural development, generous allocations for development schemes, putting more money in the hands of the average taxpayer and easing rules to attract foreign investments.
Admittedly, EVMs too have a UID number and any convergence of data can make the secret ballot system a party of history, warns Dr Gopal Krishna in the 5th part of his series against Aadhaar.
The Budget will indicate where the Modi government stands on reforms, growth and development.
The pipeline for well-qualified and experienced policy economists at senior levels of government has broken, leading to a growing dearth of suitable candidates for top economist positions.
