EDITOR'S COLUMN
Friends,
We are well and truly into 2016. As usual, February is the month of union budgets, as is the custom. We have two national budgets, one being Railway Budget and the other General Budget. While the General Budget is presented usually on the last day of the month, Railway Ministry presents its Revenue & Expenditure Budget some 2/3 days before the General Budget. We are in the leap year and hence February has 29 days. This shall be the second full budget of ‘Abki baar Modi Sarcar’. The 2014/15 budget, although lot of expectations were there, only the corporate sector appeared to have been happy. But social investment had remained disappointing. Whether, it was Agriculture, Health, Education or Malnutrition. There has been less than needed allocation and in some cases even reduced allocation. How do you have an improved and better human capital if you do not spend on social sector? Besides, Agriculture, accounting for over 15% of the GDP is employing almost 50% of our population and the government support in crisis is dismal, whether it is price support or government credit. Budget proposal should try to broaden the tax net to increase the revenue, including rich farmers. With FDI opening, there may have to be rationalization of tax structure for multi-nationals, who are out to make money from our systemic loopholes. However the most important expectation is, Budget should be people friendly rather than sector friendly. Railway budget too should provide for safe travel rather than Bullet train travel. Some little increase in the fare may be in place for increasing train frequencies, especially of local trains and metros. Incumbent Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu appears to be doing a good job. But Bullet Train can certainly wait, since it is very expensive and caters to only a miniscule section.
Month-in-Perspective is as usual include some of the happenings of January. We have tried to include as much as we could within the space constraints. However, there are issues like attack on Pathankot airbase by Pakistan based groups, or the sad suicide of a Dalit scholar at University of Hyderabad, which snow balled into lot of tu-tu-mai-mai without really touching the core issue of suffering by Dalits. Some ideological dimension appears to be present in this particular case. The killing of Air force officer inside a secluded barricaded area in Kolkatta while the Republic Day march past practice was going on, by the son of a political upstart, who happened to be a Muslim MP of TMC, or the socio-political violence in Malda between TMC and BJP in West Bengal are some of the news that couldn’t be covered. BJP fact finding central team was not allowed to enter Malda, triggering accusation that Mamata is in cover-up mode.
The issue including the iconic National Herald (NH) has been in the news for quite sometime. So is the happenings in Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA). While NH case was raked by Subramanian Swami, it was Arvind Kejriwal of AAP looking out for issues to pin-prick NDA government took up the DDCA ‘scam’. There have been many questions on the above two issues which we have tried to answer in the Focus for the month. As usual, we have tried to view and comment from an outsider’s perspective. Hope readers would like it. Rest are as usual. Do revert with your inputs.
We are well and truly into 2016. As usual, February is the month of union budgets, as is the custom. We have two national budgets, one being Railway Budget and the other General Budget. While the General Budget is presented usually on the last day of the month, Railway Ministry presents its Revenue & Expenditure Budget some 2/3 days before the General Budget. We are in the leap year and hence February has 29 days. This shall be the second full budget of ‘Abki baar Modi Sarcar’. The 2014/15 budget, although lot of expectations were there, only the corporate sector appeared to have been happy. But social investment had remained disappointing. Whether, it was Agriculture, Health, Education or Malnutrition. There has been less than needed allocation and in some cases even reduced allocation. How do you have an improved and better human capital if you do not spend on social sector? Besides, Agriculture, accounting for over 15% of the GDP is employing almost 50% of our population and the government support in crisis is dismal, whether it is price support or government credit. Budget proposal should try to broaden the tax net to increase the revenue, including rich farmers. With FDI opening, there may have to be rationalization of tax structure for multi-nationals, who are out to make money from our systemic loopholes. However the most important expectation is, Budget should be people friendly rather than sector friendly. Railway budget too should provide for safe travel rather than Bullet train travel. Some little increase in the fare may be in place for increasing train frequencies, especially of local trains and metros. Incumbent Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu appears to be doing a good job. But Bullet Train can certainly wait, since it is very expensive and caters to only a miniscule section.
Month-in-Perspective is as usual include some of the happenings of January. We have tried to include as much as we could within the space constraints. However, there are issues like attack on Pathankot airbase by Pakistan based groups, or the sad suicide of a Dalit scholar at University of Hyderabad, which snow balled into lot of tu-tu-mai-mai without really touching the core issue of suffering by Dalits. Some ideological dimension appears to be present in this particular case. The killing of Air force officer inside a secluded barricaded area in Kolkatta while the Republic Day march past practice was going on, by the son of a political upstart, who happened to be a Muslim MP of TMC, or the socio-political violence in Malda between TMC and BJP in West Bengal are some of the news that couldn’t be covered. BJP fact finding central team was not allowed to enter Malda, triggering accusation that Mamata is in cover-up mode.
The issue including the iconic National Herald (NH) has been in the news for quite sometime. So is the happenings in Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA). While NH case was raked by Subramanian Swami, it was Arvind Kejriwal of AAP looking out for issues to pin-prick NDA government took up the DDCA ‘scam’. There have been many questions on the above two issues which we have tried to answer in the Focus for the month. As usual, we have tried to view and comment from an outsider’s perspective. Hope readers would like it. Rest are as usual. Do revert with your inputs.
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