@Vauban
Will try to find a good source to quote everything in $ terms.. or else will change the whole excel sheet !!!
@Vauban
India budget to boost farm growth
Image captionMr Jaitley (middle) has announced increased spending on rural economy, health and social sectors
India's government has unveiled a budget aimed at boosting farm growth and appealing to the rural poor.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said he planned to double the income of struggling farmers in the next five years.
Having overtaken China as the world's fastest-growing economy, India is seen as a bright spot in the global economy.
But it has been hit by slowing global demand and severe droughts affecting rural areas.
"We are grateful to our farmers for being the backbone of the country's food security," Mr Jaitley said of India's estimated 120 million farmers.
"We need... to give back to our farmers a sense of income security."
He said the government had allocated $12.7bn (£9.15bn) for "rural development as a whole".
Analysts say Mr Jaitley has announced increased spending on rural economy, health and social sectors with an eye on boosting his party's prospects in the coming state elections.
They include a pledge to set up 89 projects for irrigation, doubling investments in rural roads to help farmers get produce to market, getting cooking gas to millions of poor households and funds for women entrepreneurs from underprivileged families.
The government would raise spending on a massive rural employment scheme, a crop insurance programme and increasing rural access to the Internet.
It would also work to ensure all the country's villages had electricity within two years, Mr Jaitley said.
He said the government would achieve its goal of cutting the fiscal deficit to 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2016-17 from 3.9% the year before.
Since coming to power in 2014, Mr Modi has promised to improve business and investor climate in the country with tax reforms and major infrastructure projects.
That policy has been criticised by the opposition as being too business-friendly and coming at the expense of social spending and welfare projects.
The country's huge rural population has been hit by severe droughts and recent regional elections have shown dwindling support for Mr Modi.
With crucial elections in largely agricultural states like West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh due this year and next, the government is under pressure to address the rural economy.
Analysis by Simon Atkinson, Editor, India Business Report
From irrigation to better roads - this was a budget heavily geared to rural India where two thirds of the population live.
That's partly because agriculture has suffered after two years of poor rainfall. But perhaps there was some pragmatism too ahead of elections in four states over the next year where rural voters are key.
There was support for start-ups - from tax breaks to funds for women entrepreneurs.
And while it has not been able to push through any real tax reforms - it has used the budget to remove 13 different taxes which should go some way to simplifying doing business.
But what we were lacking were the specifics of revenue-raising - especially given the finance minister is not loosening its fiscal deficit target.
Pollution taxes on new cars and up to 15% tax on cigarettes will only go so far.
Heavy one-off taxes and penalties on undeclared income - with a promise of no questions being asked and no prosecutions - might get a few takers.
But we need more details on things like potential sell-offs of government businesses before we can judge this budget
India budget to boost farm growth - BBC News
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Viewpoint: Why Narendra Modi's budget looks strangely familiar
By Vivek KaulAnalyst
- 4 hours ago
- From the sectionIndia
Image copyrightAP
Image captionIndia's 120 million farmers need income security
So what is the verdict on India's Narendra Modi-led BJP government's third annual budget today?
Clearly, it is aimed at boosting farm growth and appeals to the rural poor - the government has proposed spending $12.7bn (£9.15bn) on rural development and promised higher incomes to farmers.
"We need to think beyond food security and give back to our farmers a sense of income security," said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
"The government will, therefore, reorient its interventions in the farm and non-farm sectors to double the income of the farmers by 2022."
This isn't surprising given that farm growth has been very low - 0.5% per year, over the last two years - due to bad monsoons. It is expected to be 1.2% this year, much lower than India's overall growth of 7.6%.
There are plans to allow farmers better access to the market, introduce judicious use of fertilisers increasing crop yields in unirrigated farms, and offer incentives for the production of pulses.
That is the good part.
Before Mr Modi's government came to power in 2014, the Congress-led government with Manmohan Singh as prime minster, was in power for a decade.
Landmark schemes
Mr Singh's government wrote off loans to indebted farmers and introduced the landmark federal jobs guarantee scheme - the government's most ambitious employment generation scheme for poor people - and the
Food Security Billwhich made food a legal right.
In July 2014, Mr Modi had criticised the food security scheme: "The government in Delhi thinks that just by bringing in the Food Security Bill there will be food on your plate".
In February 2015, he also mocked the jobs guarantee scheme, saying he would ensure that it is never discontinued.
"It is proof of your failings. After so many years of being in power, all you were able to deliver is for a poor man to dig ditches a few days a month," he said.
Image copyrightAP
Image captionThe jobs guarantee scheme is the government's most ambitious employment generation scheme for poor people
The jobs guarantee scheme aims to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household whose adults are willing to do unskilled manual work.
The trouble is that it has essentially became another scheme where money is simply given away without any substantial assets being created.
But Mr Modi's government has done a u-turn here and allocated $5.62bn (£4bn) to the scheme for 2016-2017 - the highest ever.
That is why Mr Modi is now looking more and more similar to Manmohan Singh.
Minimum government?
He is a better marketer though than Mr Singh and his regime is not seen to be as corrupt as the previous government.
Mr Modi had promised "minimum government and maximum governance". But with allocations to the jobs guarantee scheme at their highest ever level, this promise has gone out of the window, at least for now.
The food security scheme provides cheap rice and wheat to the poor.
But the government itself admits that nearly 54% of the wheat, 48% of the sugar and 15% of rice, meant to be distributed through through government-licensed "fair price shops", is stolen and sold on the open market.
Nevertheless, no effort has been made to plug this leakage which costs the country a lot of money.
Further, what India needs is the creation of a huge number of jobs - two years ago, Mr Modi had promised 10 million jobs.
Image copyrightAFP
Image captionThe government is betting on the creation of road and railway infrastructure to boost jobs
Only some 30 millions Indians work in the organised sector. And nearly 58% of its population continues to be dependent on agriculture which generates around 16-18% of India's GDP.
What this tells us is that there is huge over-employment in an unproductive sector and that jobs need to be created in other sectors so that people can move away from agriculture. And that is clearly not happening.
The government is betting on the creation of road and railway infrastructure for the creation of semi-skilled and unskilled jobs required for moving people away from agriculture.
Will this be enough to move people away from farms by creating a substantial number of jobs?
There are no easy answers.
Viewpoint: Why Narendra Modi's budget looks strangely familiar - BBC News
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