Unsustainable welfarism

India needs a strong bond market to check electoral populism

Addressing a political rally in Durgapur, West Bengal, on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the interim Budget for 2019-20 as a “historic” step towards empowering peasants, workmen and the middle class, and promised more benefits for all sections in the full Budget if his party returned to power after the Lok Sabha polls. The interim Budget had several steps towards creating a welfare state, including an income support scheme for farmers owning up to 2 hectares — about 120 million households — who would receive income support worth Rs 6,000 a year. It introduced a pension scheme for unorganised