Centre's fund crunch pulls down cities; rich Mumbai struggles too

Acute fiscal stress is building in India’s states and municipalities, including the urban authority that manages the richest city, Mumbai. This matters. Local bodies hold the key to lasting solutions for a broader crisis of financial resources.

The federal government’s chronic deficits dominate discussions about India’s precarious public finances. It’s time to flip this New Delhi-centric approach. State government accounts deserve scrutiny because they collectively spend 36 per cent more than the federal administration. Yet their fundraising abilities are limited. Of the Rs 24 trillion ($340 billion) that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s team hopes to pull in via taxes in the