Best of BS Opinion: Prioritising expenditure, moving on infra agenda & more

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Wednesday

The April-June quarter is expected to still show a large growth on YoY basis as lockdowns this time are not as stringent as last year, but the economy is undoubtedly contracting on a sequential basis. Disruption in economic activity has led to renewed demands for fiscal stimulus. In this context, our lead editorial notes that there is no dispute that the government should increase capital expenditure to crowd in private investment — which will help boost growth over the medium— but at this juncture, the priority should be to provide relief. Read here
 

Under the UPA, the regional parties actually consented to devolving more power upwards, by agreeing to central laws like the Right to Education Act, the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, and the Food Security Act. Each one of these made the Centre more powerful in terms of law-making on behalf of states, but the regional parties acquiesced, writes R Jagannathan   
 

Globally, municipal bonds are an established and major source of funding for urban infra. In the US, the size of the municipal bond market is over $3.8 trillion, but it is quite underdeveloped in India, notes Vinayak Chatterjee
 

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“A severe second wave of the coronavirus has increased risks to the outlook with potential longer-term credit implications. Risks to India's credit profile, including a persistent slowdown in growth, weak government finances and rising financial sector risks, have been exacerbated by the shock.”

Rating agency Moody’s