The flagship schemes of the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation are once again prioritized in the budget for FY 2023-24, with a much-needed impetus to Urban Sanitation. It speaks of India’s resolve against the inhuman practice of manual scavenging. The article highlights the new initiatives in the WASH budget, and the bottlenecks in the process of achieving higher standards of hygiene and water security.

In a bid to strengthen post-harvest operations and make farming more remunerative for small farmers, Government of India has announced a pilot programme for cluster-based farming.  We do expect and hope for a positive outcome from this initiative but the issues that can hamper the implementation and its associated benefits cannot be ignored. This article hints at some of these aspects including the loss of autonomy of Farm Producer Organisations due power asymmetry.

केंद्रीय बजट सार्वजनिक चर्चा पर हावी रहा जबकि केंद्र प्रायोजित योजनाओं के लिए ठीक से उपयोग न की गई राशि के मुद्दे पर कोई जांच नहीं हुई।

The Union Government’s spending on agriculture and allied sectors in recent years needs to be understood from the perspective of long-term development implications. In this context, this piece unpacks the budgetary spending on the sector in the recently-presented Union Budget 2023-24.

Union Budget outlays dominate the public discourse while the issue of underutilised funds for centrally sponsored schemes goes unexamined.

With the Indian Government thrusting on green growth as seven priorities, this article highlights how the states are spending on clean energy and the need for ramping up the financing for it.

The Budget 2023 announced vital measures in the school education sector to align with the vision of NEP 2020. But have the budgetary interventions addressed the pandemic-induced learning loss and digital divide?

The Indian government has implemented policies and initiatives aimed at improving public engagement with budget documents. Digital India Initiative aims to make budget documents available electronically in a standardised format and accessible through web portals and mobile apps. This article takes a closer look at the future implications of adopting new-age modes of disseminating fiscal information.

Rapid urbanization presents challenges such as housing shortages, inadequate infrastructure, and environmental degradation. The government must ensure the proper use of funds, build the capacity of urban local bodies and citizens, and prioritize basic services. This article delves into the potential consequences of such a policy amendment.

In India, most legal and policy interventions for Gender based violence come into play after violence has already occurred, with a very few programs addressing prevention. Key schemes were subsumed under two new programmes under Mission Shakti. This was accompanied by a drop in allocation of funds. The Nirbhaya fund is continuously underutilized and projects appraised are often surveillance oriented. Ahead of budget 2023, this piece analyses the same.

The agriculture sector in India has been facing a crisis and requires policy attention. Both the Union government and state governments have increased their spending on agriculture to revive the growth of the sector, but this should be analyzed for its long-term impact. Some state governments have launched their initiatives to provide direct financial support to farmers, but at least one of them must prioritize sector-wide support measures to achieve sustained improvements in agriculture and make farming a viable occupation. The various facets of essential agricultural development for the future are presented in this piece.

The reduction of the scholarship budget and low utilization of funds have contributed to poor education levels among religious minorities. The scholarship schemes face implementation issues, such as poor coverage of beneficiaries, low unit costs, and inadequate allocations of funds. The future effects of such a policy change are discussed in the article that follows.