NATIONAL NEWS
Union Budget 2022: Sharp hike in capital expenditure; no changes in Income Tax
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2022 on February 1. She said that the Budget proposals for this financial year rest on health and well-being, infrastructure, inclusive development, energy transition and climate action, financing of investments and ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’. India’s economic growth estimated at 9.2% to be the highest among all large economies, she said, adding that 60 lakh new jobs will be created under the productivity-linked incentive scheme in 14 sectors. The ‘Effective Capital Expenditure’ of the Central Government is estimated at ₹10.68 lakh crore in 2022-23 or about 4.1% of the GDP, factoring in Grants-in-Aid to States for creating capital assets, Sitharaman said. This is a little over 27% more than the revised estimate of ₹8.4 lakh crore for the current year, which in turn is nearly 28% higher than the 2020-21 allocations for such capital spending. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents the Union Budget 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha, in New Delhi on February 1, 2022. The Centre’s own spending on the capital account, is being raised to ₹7.50 lakh crore from the coming year, which Sitharaman emphasised is over 2.2 times the outlay in 2019-20. Budget 2021-22 had allocated ₹5.54 lakh crore for capex, which has been raised to nearly ₹6.03 lakh crore in revised estimates. “The sharp increase in capital expenditure, particularly focused on infrastructure, and efforts to enhance digital connectivity to all villages, is much needed,” said Fifteenth Finance Commission Chairperson N.K. Singh. However, he was a bit disappointed that the Bharatnet project to connect all villages will now be ready by 2025 as indicated by the Budget speech. “They should have taken some measures to accelerate this,” he noted. Other significant announcements include the launch of a digital currency, e-passports and a slew of infrastructure projects. Edible oil, wearable electronics, imitation jewellery, polished diamond are to be cheaper. The fiscal deficit has been kept at 6.9% of GDP. While some tax relief measures were announced for persons with disabilities, there has been no change in personal income tax rates.
MGNREGA budget slashed by 25% amid high rural unemployment
The Centre’s ₹73,000 crore allocation for the flagship rural jobs scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), in 2022-23 is 25% lower than the ₹98,000 crore revised estimate for the scheme in the current year, reverting to the same insufficient amount allocated in the last budget. In fact the MGNREGA did not find any mention during the Union Finance Minister’s Budget speech on Tuesday. Rural employment activists and non-BJP State governments reacted with outrage, accusing the government of crippling a key safety net during an employment crisis, while some economists said the Centre had missed a critical opportunity to revive consumer demand in the rural economy. MGNREGA is a demand-driven scheme, guaranteeing 100 days of unskilled work to any rural household that wants it. During the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, when the scheme was ramped up and given its highest-ever budget of ₹1.11 lakh crore, it provided a critical lifeline for a record 11 crore workers. In the next financial year 2021-22, the budget allocation dropped to ₹73,000 crore, resulting in the scheme running out of funds and putting its balance sheet in negative territory by October. A group of MGNREGA workers in Palakkad. File Supplementary allocations then pushed up the revised estimates to ₹98,000 crore, but workers say they paid the cost in delayed wage payments and artificial suppression of demand, while some State governments were forced to dip into their own coffers to meet costs. “The cut comes at a time when the country is going through its worst ever employment crisis. MNREGA is crucial because it reaches out to the last person in the line. With the current allocation, we will have a repeat of last year, when the funds ran out midway through the year and many crucial works will have to be stalled,” said Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal.
Budget has no vision for employment generation: Opposition
Opposition parties were united in their criticism of the Union Budget 2022 for its lack of initiatives to increase employment opportunities or reduce inflation. The Budget, they said, aimed only to benefit the rich. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the Finance Minister of the State tweeted, “Budget has zero for common people, who are getting crushed by unemployment and inflation. Government is lost in big words signifying nothing. A pegasus spin budget.” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also echoed similar sentiments. “People had high expectations from the budget especially during the COVID pandemic. The budget disappointed the people. There is nothing in the budget for the general public. Nothing to reduce inflation,” he tweeted. The unemployment crisis that the country is going through has not been addressed, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said. He tweeted: “India has 200 million missing jobs today. No urban employment guarantee announced. MGNREGA allocation remains the same as last year ₹73000cr, which fell short by nearly ₹50000cr. A criminal assault on the livelihood of our youth.” Yechury also pointed out that the BJP government’s promise to double farmers’ income had also come to naught. “Finance Minister proudly announces ₹2,37LCr as MSP on wheat & paddy directly credited to farmers’ accounts. This is less than the MSP payments in 2020-21, which was ₹2.478LCr. Criminal assault on farmers continues,” he said.
Over half of all news shows have aggressive content: Study
A study by Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) of 31 primetime television news and talk shows in 12 languages including English, found aggression in more than 50% of all news shows and in 85% of talk shows. The focus of this study was not on news bias or framing but on the performance of the reporter or the anchor. The study also found the biggest expression of aggression was in tone of voice (76.76%), while sound and visual effects came in at 60%. The number of male anchors with an aggressive tone of voice (78.13 %) was only marginally higher than that of their female counterparts (75.28%); panels moderated by male anchors showed far higher (54.55%) aggressive behaviour on several metrics than those moderated by women (12.07%). Further, panels moderated by male anchors revealed relatively more (54.55%) aggressive masculinist behaviour on several metrics than those moderated by female anchors (12.07%). More shouting by speakers over one another was also observed in male-moderated panels (48.75%) as compared to female-moderated panels (15.52%).
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Amazon to shut down publishing house Westland
Much to the disappointment of book lovers, Westland, one of the largest publishing houses in India, is being shut down by e-commerce giant Amazon, they announced on Tuesday. The publishing company, which was acquired by Amazon from Trent Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Group, in 2016, has published works of several bestselling authors including Amish Tripathi, Chetan Bhagat, Ashwin Sanghi, Rashmi Bansal, Rujuta Diwekar, Preeti Shenoy, Devdutt Pattanaik, Anuja Chauhan and Ravi Subramanian. “After a thorough review, we have made the difficult decision to no longer operate Westland. We are working closely with the employees, authors, agents, and distribution partners on this transition and we remain committed to innovating for customers in India,” said Amazon in a statement. The news regarding the closure came as a shock to the editors, Westland team members and its public relations agency, who according to a staff member requesting anonymity, were informed about the decision only today. It was particularly sad for bestselling fiction writer Ashwin Sanghi, who wrote his debut novel with Westland in 2008 and went on to publish a “dozen books” over that many years. “It is sad to see the exit of a publishing institution. The Westland team is one of the finest in the business and there are many emotions and memories of my publishing journey with them that shall always remain with me,” Sanghi told PTI.
Google is planning to stop offering the unlimited plan to store WhatsApp backups.
Google is planning to stop offering the unlimited plan to store our WhatsApp backups and will allow only a certain quota to store WhatsApp backups for free, in a limited plan, according to Wabetainfo, a leading news portal about WhatsApp. The search giant will send notifications to users when Google Drive is almost full and when the limit is reached but detailed information about the new storage plan is unknown right now. Currently, WhatsApp backups for Android users don’t count against their Google Drive storage due to an agreement between WhatsApp and Google. This is an advantage for Android users since Apple doesn’t offer an unlimited plan to store backups on iCloud.
