Beyond the third wave: Rural economy, banking recovery, and more

 Budget at a glance: Here’re the key numbers from Union Budget 2022

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday unveiled a bigger Rs 39.45 lakh crore Budget, with higher spending on highways to affordable housing with a view to fire up the key engines of the economy to sustain a world-beating recovery from the pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was “people-friendly, progressive” and full of possibilities for infrastructure, investment, growth and jobs. In a televised statement, Modi said an important aspect of the Union Budget was the welfare of the poor.

Winter session troubles may hit House again; FM to present Eco Survey today

 The Personal Data Protection Bill is eagerly awaited and may come up in the Budget session

If the winter session of Parliament was a washout, the prognosis for the upcoming Budget session that begins on January 31, with the Preside­nt’s address to both Houses of Parliament, is no better. As Opposition parties reached out to each other to fine-tune parliamentary strat­egy, the Narendra Modi government is expected to be in the Oppo­sition’s cross hairs on issues such as the new revelations on snooping by intelligence interception company Pegasus, farm distress, management of the third wave of Covid-19, the sale of national carrier Air India, and Chinese “incursions” into eastern Ladakh.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Economic Survey 2021-22 on Monday and the Union Budget on Tuesday. This is expected to go off with only sporadic interruption. But the Budget session is taking place amid a heated election campaign in five states – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, and Manipur – that go to polls in seven phases from February 10 to March 7.

As parties go head to head in the field, reverberations will hit Parliament as well. This is not all. Some Bills awaiting discussion and passage are also hotly contested. The Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2021, for instance, has been opposed vigorously by several Opposition-ruled states, inclu­ding Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Kerala…Union Budget 2022

Is India running out of time to cash in on its booming young workforce?

India isn’t doing enough to revamp its education system to prepare the youth for better-paying, high-skilled jobs, going by a recent World Bank report

Economy News: India, which is home to more young people than any other country, is running out of time to harness the potential of its youth to drive economic growth. The nation’s population in the under-19 age group has already peaked, government data show. That means the labor force will grow more slowly from here on out. In just over 20 years, the South Asian nation will be an aging society, similar to where China is now, according to the Economic Survey published by the Finance Ministry earlier this month.

With those risks looming, India isn’t doing enough to revamp its education system to prepare the youth for better-paying, high-skilled jobs, going by a recent World Bank report. The world’s sixth-biggest economy, and until recently the fastest-growing major one, is ranked 115 out of 157 countries in the Human Capital Index, which measures the investment in education and health care for young people.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget this month allocated 3.4 per cent of total annual spending to the ministry in charge of education, little changed from the last few years and down from 3.8 per cent in 2015. The government’s own review of public schools says “it is common knowledge” that the country’s education system suffers from a shortage of teachers and staff, poor teacher training and delays in receiving funds.