Modi govt caught in a bind: Prepare for 2019 polls or meet deficit target

India’s government is caught in a bind. It needs money to appease voters ahead of a tighter-than-expected reelection campaign. But it’s also set praiseworthy deficit targets for itself that it’s already breached once. So it could use new ways to finance more spending.

Such pressure often leads to bad decisions. This week, a senior official suggested that one solution might be to force big public-sector companies to buy back shares. In particular, the boards of Indian Oil Corp. Ltd., the Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd., Oil India Ltd. and others might have to buy back shares worth about $2.7 billion.

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