Reading between the lines: Forget the rhetoric, this is no Budget for India's poor

India's social-sector spending remains woefully low and despite claims of being a pro-farmer Budget, the effective allocations are nearly the same as last year.

Harsh Mander

· Feb 11, 2017 · 10:30 am

Budget fine print: A Rs 2-crore home in Mumbai could qualify for affordable housing subsidies

By defining affordable housing by size rather than cost, has the government defeated the very purpose of the measure?

Gurbir Singh

· Feb 09, 2017 · 08:00 am

In budget 2017, Arun Jaitley gave flailing public health programmes little hope

The finance minister gave the health ministry Rs 10,000 crores more this year, but that is still less than health allocation in 2011.

Indranil Mukhopadhyay

· Feb 06, 2017 · 02:30 pm

Budget 2017: Crafty politicians can bend the new rules on political funding even in their sleep

The new rules, such as a cap of Rs 2,000 on individual contributions and introduction of electoral bonds, have plenty of caveats.

Rebecca Brown

, 

Milan Vaishnav

 & 

qz.com

· Feb 03, 2017 · 09:30 pm

'Jai Shri Gram' and commando Modi: How front pages covered Budget 2017

A look at newspaper coverage of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's fourth Budget.

Scroll Staff

· Feb 02, 2017 · 12:01 pm

Budget 2017: The Election Commission has a lesson to learn from Trump's America

The Budget shows why the poll body should have accepted the Opposition’s request to postpone its presentation till after the Assembly elections.

Ajaz Ashraf

· Feb 02, 2017 · 09:00 am

Jaitley's Budget does little to reduce pain of demonetisation – but brings relief to Opposition

Opposition had feared the BJP would announce populist measures that could sway voters in the five states going to the polls this month.

Anita Katyal

· Feb 02, 2017 · 05:30 am

What to expect from the budget's Mahila Shakti Kendras: Not much, say activists

If Rs 500 crore is allocated to 14 lakh anganwadis, it amounts to just Rs 3,571 for setting up each women's empowerment centre.

Aarefa Johari

· Feb 01, 2017 · 10:15 pm

Will the Rs 2,000 cap on cash donations for political parties bring more transparency in the system?

In the absence of a cap on the number of such payments or making details of the donors known, old loopholes remain.

Abhishek Dey

· Feb 01, 2017 · 09:10 pm

After the 'bold move' of demonetisation, this Budget played it safe – thank god for that

There’s more prudence and less profligacy in Arun Jaitley’s financial outlay for the coming financial year.

Anupam Gupta

· Feb 01, 2017 · 08:30 pm

The government still needs to find the money to eliminate TB and kala azar

Health experts say the budget plan to eliminate TB by 2025 is ambitious. They are also flummoxed by the finance minister's announcement on leprosy.

Menaka Rao

 & 

Priyanka Vora

· Feb 01, 2017 · 07:42 pm

For rural and farm sectors, no dramatic increase in spending nor any fresh ideas

Like the rural employment guarantee scheme, allocations to rural infrastructure have largely been maintained previous levels, say experts.

Anumeha Yadav

 & 

Mridula Chari

· Feb 01, 2017 · 06:50 pm