Insights

This article presents the issues in availing the benefits under PMMVY scheme in Bihar. The data from the MWCD and other sources show that at least half of the applications to avail the scheme are rejected and the benefits accessed by pregnant women are much lower in Bihar as compared to the national average.

This article looks into the budgetary priorities of the Interim Budget 2024-25 and its implications for the social sector spending in terms of re-prioritisation and reallocation of resources since FY 2018-19.

The article discusses the key fiscal developments in the Agriculture and Allied Sector and what should have ideally been the fiscal response to the particular issues? The article points out that towards an effective utilisation of budgetary allocation implementation challenges, especially the institutional, governance and systemic should be resolved by creating an enabled system to absorb funds and fully utilise the available funds.

India’s commitment towards achieving SDGs can be realised only if the interventions at the national level are complemented by the initiatives undertaken at the sub-national level. This article presents the case of Assam which has been a front runner to prepare SDG linked Outcome Budgets. This year, Assam has gone a step forward, in terms of aligning its departmental schemes/interventions under thematic areas to promote overall welfare and development in the State.

Our climate finance team members Soutrik and Subrata do an analytical analysis on how the interim budgets reflects the climate action priorities across Mitigation, Adaptation and Disaster Resilience.

Reflecting on the Union Budget Interim 2024-25 we analyze the current trends and allocations along with some key gaps towards India’s holistic climate action strategy. We look towards what can be some highlighting issues which can be looked into in the upcoming main budget and India’s forthcoming climate action strategy.

The article discusses how the Interim Union Budget for 2024-25 addresses Nutrition. It examines whether the budget gives adequate priority to this crucial sector, by having a closer look at some of the pertinent issues on the ground.

Direct Tax is a more equitable measure of income redistribution as it imposes a lesser burden on the economically disadvantaged compared to Indirect Taxes. The Direct Tax contribution to the Union Government’s revenue growth has been consistently increasing over the past few years. This article takes a deeper look into the shift in the composition of direct taxes and its projection for FY2025. It also examines the GST trends and the move towards centralisation of taxes through cess and surcharges.

The rural economy showed an extraordinary resilience to absorb the reverse migration shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, however, it is still confronted with glaring disparities due to high levels of poverty and socio-economic inequalities, which especially intensified after the pandemic. In this context, the present article examines the efficacy and effectiveness of the allocations made under the Interim Budget (2024-25) towards major flagship programmes such as MGNREGS, DAY-NRLM, PMAY-G and PMGSY to further strengthen the resilience of the rural economy in India.

The presents an analysis of the budgetary spending of different umbrella and core schemes and programmes targeting the social security of the unorganised sector workers to give readers a broad idea of the existing schemes and also about the change in allocation towards them in the last six years.

India is home to 253 million adolescents, and half of them are girls. These girls confront anaemia, undernutrition, and limited sexual and mental health knowledge, while often sacrificing education for unpaid domestic duties among others. As the interim budget approaches on February 1, it is imperative to focus on investing in the health and education of these adolescent girls.

The year 2023 has seen crucial developments for gender equality and women empowerment including the enactment of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, ensuring one-third of the seats in parliament and state legislatures for women, and India’s G20 Presidency, which concluded with emphasis on women-led development. In this context, what are the key expectations from the interim budget in the run up to the 2024 general election? How will budgetary priorities be routed towards gender equality and women’s empowerment goals? This piece maps the promises, priorities, patterns and prospects ahead of the interim Union Budget 2024 from a gender perspective.