Ecognizance

With no big bang announcements on the Budget day, the banking sector had to be satisfied with what they already have. In fact, were given a bigger task to provide incremental loans worth Rs 5 lakh crore in Fy19. The proposal to allow RRBs to raise market capital would enable these institutions to support credit flow to the rural sector. The proposals to review the refinancing norms for NBFCs(Non-Banking Financial Company) under MUDRA and receivable discounting by PSBs would improve credit supply to MSMEs and support the credit growth of banks and NBFCs. The increase in exempted interest income is unlikely to significantly improve deposit base, as the tax exemption is restricted to senior citizens who anyways prefer bank deposits. However, the proposal to provide insurance and pension benefits to the poor through Jan Dhan accounts can improve the deposit base of banks to some extent. The big expected announcement which didn’t come was the increase in foreign holding limit in priva...

The Finance minister has set the fiscal deficit target for 2018-19 at 3.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) against the earlier target of 3%.Most analysts say they had expected it to be 3.2%.The government also revised the deficit target for the year ending in March 2018 to 3.5% of GDP from the targeted 3.2%. Key recommendations of N.k singh Committee are accepted by finance minister to reduce debt-to- GDP ratio to 40% by 2024 to 2025. The debt-to-GDP ratio was 50.1 % in l ast year. Now government aims to reduce the ratio by 3.3% in 2018-19 , by 3.1% in 2019-2020 and 3% by 2020-21. In this budget Government has also introduced amendments to the present fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. The government has increased its borrowing programme from Rs6.05 trillion to Rs6.06 trillion for the next fiscal year.The fiscal deficit target of 3.5% of GDP was achieved after cutting down capital expenditure by Rs36,000 crore in 2017-18. A shortfall of Rs50,000 crore on accoun...

The total capital outlay for the infrastructure sector has been budgeted to increase by 20.8% to Rs 5.97 lakh crore in FY18-19. The infrastructure sector expects continued thrust from the government towards revival of investment cycle in the form of further increase in budgetary allocations towards infrastructure sector with focus on roads, railways and urban infrastructure. Apart from these core subsectors the special focus of this Budget 2018 has been on rural infrastructu re through development of rural roads, houses, sanitation, irrigation and water supply. With an aim to bring back the flagging revenues of the national transporter back on track, Arun Jaitley announced a capital expenditure allocation of Rs 1.48 crore for the railways. This includes redevelopment of 600 major railway stations and setting up of escalators and CCTVs and Wi-Fi facilities. This will help digitalization of Indian railways along with improvement on safety. Delays and accidents, the two main problem fa...

India’s higher education institutes need to gear themselves up towards addressing the new challenges presented by advancement ot technology and increase in automation systems. Technology can play a big role in taking quality education to masses. There should be no GST or income tax on education-technology companies which are delivering education through online mode. Ekalavya Model Residential School to be set up in every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20, 000 tribal persons. The schools will also focus on providing training in sports and skill development. Introducing an updated and current edition of the National Education Policy would be a clear indication of the government’s commitment to the agenda of improving the education sector. The government must look at further improving access to education at all levels and rationalising taxes to make books, notebooks and educational material including those via e-learning education programs affordable fo...

The NHPS which will be providing coverage for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization will have approximately 50 crore beneficiaries. TB patients will be provided support at the rate of Rs.500/month for the duration of their treatment. It is an insult to the people’s intelligence to announce a grand scheme without forethought or preparation or money in the last year of the term of the governme nt. We don’t necessarily need more allocations rather we need to use the allocations we have more effectively by prioritising improvement of basic health facilities such as infrastructure of hospitals, adequate number of qualified doctors and nurses and, availability of generic medicines. India has one doctor for 1,681 persons (2016 data) and one government doctor for 11,528 persons, against the World Health Organization’s norm of one doctor for 1,000 persons. We produce only 55,000 graduate doctors and 25,000 post-graduate doctors every year. Each doctor carries the burden of ...

With large parts of the country, including poll-bound states, gripped by a farm crisis, Modi government’s last budget gives top priority to the rural sector. The focus of the government next year will be to provide maximum livelihood opportunities in rural areas by spending more on livelihood, agricultural and allied activities and construction of rural infrastructure,” Jaitley said. Union Budget 2018 focusses on strengthening the rural economy in all aspects including from f armers to the salaried class, cutting across the poor and middle class society. Referring to the measures taken for the benefit of lower and middle class, the Finance Minister said, under Ujjwala Scheme distribution of free LPG connections will be given to 8 crore poor women instead of the previous target of 5 crore women. Under Saubahagya Yojana, 4 crore poor households are being provided with electricity connection with an outlay of Rs.16,000 crore. To fulfil target of housing for All by 2022 ,more th...

Are we intelligent, educated or literate? 'The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character- that is the goal of true education.’ - Martin Luther King, Jr.  King’s words are as true today as when he spoke them. As I see young students struggling with their textbooks, trying to memorise all that it has, not making bare minimum efforts to comprehend what they are actually putting into their precious minds, I get worried. I get worried about not only their future, but sometimes also about mine and many of my generation, who are part of a society where the idea of education, and unfortunately intelligence, is limited to proficiency in numeracy or literacy. Real intelligence is today what you use in academic studies. Being educated requires that you know everything, even if it means that you actually know nothing about how to make use of that ‘everything’​. “Picasso once said that all children are born artis...