India's Social Sector Spending

In his monthly Mann ki Baat address, PM Modi said that until 2015, government schemes could reach even fewer than 250 million people

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the government is close to reaching saturation in implementing social sector schemes designed to provide basic necessities to the poor. Addressing the students of Hindu College on the occasion of its 125th anniversary, she said the time has come for India to become economically 'aatmanirbhar' (self-reliant) and march forward to become a developed nation by 2047. Regretting that 60 years since Independence passed without any sense of urgency, Sitharaman said, "we have laid the material foundation for a Viksit Bharat" and empowering people by providing basic necessities to all. Even earlier government had schemes of providing houses, roads etc but the sense of urgency was missing, she said, adding, nearly 50 per cent of the population were devoid of fundamental things 50 or 60 years post independence. "So that's the underlying principle with which between 2014 and today we have done with a sense of urgency. Push the border forward,

The increased tax buoyancy as reflected in both income tax and GST monthly collection data will provide headroom to the government to allocate more funds for farmers and social sector schemes in the forthcoming interim budget, without sacrificing fiscal prudence, sources said. The focus in the interim budget, which will be the last major economic document of the Modi 2.0 Government ahead of the general elections, is likely to be on the issues being faced by poorer sections of the society, especially in rural areas. According to sources, collections from income and corporate taxes have been showing buoyancy in the current fiscal, and the total direct tax mop-up is likely to exceed budget estimates by about Rs 1 lakh crore. The government had budgeted to collect Rs 18.23 lakh crore from direct taxes in this fiscal. Till January 10, the mop-up stood at Rs 14.70 lakh crore, which is 81 per cent of budget estimates. On the Goods and Services Tax (GST) front, Central GST revenues are ...

The Social Stock Exchange (SSE) has been developed with the sole motive of facilitating social enterprises in raising funds from the public through the stock exchange mechanism

Social sector expenditure by states increased sharply during two years worst hit by the coronavirus

The budget "is confronted with a tight trade-off between the rigors of fiscal consolidation and the demands for stimulating the economy," the RBI said