Page 9 - A K Bhattacharya

BJP's rebel with a cause

Demonetisation, according to the author, led to another major flaw in the way the government dealt with the crisis in the micro, small and medium enterprises sector

Govt lost political capital in getting RBI funds but gained very little

In retrospect, the government's move to get more RBI funds for itself has paid it no dividend

Low manufacturing with little support from govt spend pulled economy down

The chief culprit for economic growth decline was manufacturing sector. It grew by just 0.6% in the April-June 2019 quarter, compared to the double digit growth of 12.1% in the same period of 2018

How the stressed asset problem snowballed into a tussle between RBI, govt

An exclusive excerpt from A K Bhattacharya's 'The Rise of Goliath'

Budget 2019: Fiscally responsible with a reforms thrust, but protectionist

The finance minister's revenue efforts represent a mix of progressive taxation, dipping into the petroleum sector for collecting more taxes and growing protectionism

How different will Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget be from Indira Gandhi's?

The concerns that Ms Sitharaman will have to address in her first Budget are not very different from what Ms Gandhi had faced while finalising her Budget in 1970

Achieving a fiscal miracle

The government managed to recover more by way of loan repayments and increase its disinvestment receipts over and above what was mentioned in the revised estimates

A complete overhaul: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new economic team

At the Cabinet level alone, there are as many as nine changes from the team that was at the helm of the government during Mr Modi's first five-year tenure

A lean govt needs ministries, departments to be merged; will PM Modi do it?

Can Narendra Modi fulfil the BJP's poll promise of reducing the government's size by merging departments?

Growing demand for external commercial borrowing is a disturbing trend

For two successive years, registrations for external commercial borrowing have shot up. It is a trend the govt can't afford to ignore

Centre allocates more from IGST to itself; states may view this as unfair

The 60:40 formula (in favour of the Centre) for sharing the IGST collections has given the Centre an added advantage in meeting its annual GST target

RBI vs RTI

The RBI's approach to the question of dealing with the RTI Act does not adequately reflect the various provisions of the law

Expect no lean govt

Manifestos of both the BJP and the Congress hold out no hope that the size of the next government will be reduced

Rahul Gandhi's electoral promise and the curse of handout politics

Just as in Feb 2006, when the Congress inaugurated the politics of entitlement with NREGS, it has now given a big push to the politics of handouts, even if that constrains the state's fiscal capacity

India's FDI inflows: Has Singapore gained at the expense of Mauritius?

In the first three quarters of 2018-19, total FDI inflows at $46.62 billion fell by over 3% over the same period of 2017-18

Meeting a target

The government's fiscal consolidation efforts may result in a squeeze on its capital expenditure

PSUs' capital outlay down for 1st time in 4 yrs; future could be more tense

The government's Budgetary support to PSUs, also, has increased significantly in these five years. It has gone up from Rs 0.69 trillion in 2013-14 to Rs 2.29 trillion in 2018-19

Interim Budget 2019: NDA got more taxes from individuals than UPA

Share of tax revenues in GDP is set to cross the 12 per cent mark in 2018-19, a rise of almost two percentage points.

Interim Budget options for Mr Jaitley

Of the three past Interim Budgets, only one of them, presented by Mr Mukherjee, completely refrained from announcing new taxation proposals

Opportunity taken

Why the President's address to Parliament on Jan 31 will be as important as the interim Budget to be presented by the finance minister