Budget, Parliament and lot more

Analysis and Reflections

Feb 14, 2021

This week we are covering how Union Budget of 2021 has impacted different sectors of the economy, and how the parliament session unfolded with Prime Minister’s speech to the questions raised by opposition. Along with, reflecting on the changing dynamics between the state and media across the world.

Hope you enjoy reading this week’s newsletter, and keep you up-to-date with the events from across the world and India.

Budget and Policies

The unusual year of 2020 has brought challenges and questioned a number of social policies and programs. We have tried to reflect on how budget has tried to amend these loopholes which have been in limelight during the pandemic.

Agriculture and Budget

This financial year’s budget has been strongly focused on agriculture which aims to increase credit targets through schemes like SVAMITVA ( Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas ) which let farmers use their property as financial assets for taking loans. Another one is E-NAM, in which the government has decided to integrate 100 more Mandis, keeping in view the transparency and competitiveness in the Agri market.

Agriculture Startups have been given importance in this budget through the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund which has been increased from 30,000 crores to 40,000 crores. Farm Laws were not discussed in the budget but an interesting thing to note here is that there are certain schemes which are there to ensure implementation of MSP has seen a continuous reduction in the last two years when researched.

The schemes which already existed like PM-KISAN and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana did not get any additional changes or benefits in the budget 2021.

Public Health and Budget

Though there is an overall 137% increase in health budget when looked into specific policies and how it is allocated the results are different. The National Health Mission witnessed a 4.4 % increase in the budget, despite that it fails to allocate funding for ensuring minimum wage and insurance for all frontline health workers like Asha ( Accredited Social Health Activist) and Aanganwadi.

In other news, the allocation of Rs. 35,000 crore for COVID vaccination might be insufficient given that it would cost Rs. 52,000 crores. Ayushman Bharat and PM Jan Aarogya Yojana remained unchanged at Rs. 6,400 crores

Some Good news for Policy, research, science, technology, advocacy and social organisations:

National Research Foundation created in 2019, has been in focus with an outlay of 50,000 crores under the budget of 2021. The aim is to strengthen the overall research ecosystem in the country, by identifying issues of national priority.

Ed- Tech Budget

While the Ed-tech industry expected the government to cut the taxation to 5 % from 18% and the rest amount can be used for the development of Ed-tech platforms and for bridging the gap between the accessible and non-accessible.

Many Startup CEOs have responded to the Ed-tech Budget regarding the GST. They said that such educational institutions, staff members, etc should not be burdened with GST. Moreover, by lowering the GST percentage the accessibility of education to the students from all sections of the society, will increase. Besides, the focus should be on strengthening the digital infrastructure.

What happened in the Parliament?

The Prime Minister Speaks

The Prime Minister delivered 2 significant addresses in both houses of the parliament- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Keeping in mind the social and political context of the time, the Prime Minister reiterated the importance of Private Sector in an economy and its role in the coming years. Along with this, two new terms were introduced- ‘Andolanjeevi’ and a new full form of the term ‘FDI’- Foreign Destructive Ideology.

In his speech, Mr Modi showed respect towards the present Farmers’ Protest but cautioned the citizens of ‘Andolanjeevi’- who in the government’s opinion, want to overtake the protest and are present in every protest. These new terminologies have been viewed by different stakeholders differently

Social and Political Context- At the moment, the country has been witnessing the largest human mobilization ever, organised by the Indian Farmers against the new three farm bills. The protest has been peaceful mostly but turned volatile on the 26 January 2021 during the tractor rally. Post that, the government has cut down internet connectivity in the national capital and adjoining areas which got attention by an 18-year old activist Greta Thunberg, American pop star Rihanna, and has been covered by Trevor Noah in The Daily Show.

The Opposition Strikes Back

Mahua Moitra, Trinamool Congress MP has been in news from time to time, for her scathing attacks on the ruling government and her vivid style of speaking has amazed most of us. Yet again, she was in news for her remarks on the values of democracy, the sanctity of the India Judiciary and a lot more.

She challenged the ruling government on its recent actions, from the response by the Ministry of External Affairs to an 18-year old activist to the procedure followed while passing the farm laws. In response to this, a couple of Bharatiya Janata Party’s MPs have attempted to pass a breach of privilege motion against her. To which she responded:-

Similarly, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posed questions from the ruling party on-farm laws and the ongoing border issue with China.

Social Networking

Twitter Standoff

Government of India since the beginning of February have been sending orders to the social media giant, Twitter to ban certain accounts and trending hashtags, To which, in the beginning, the enterprise complied, but later these accounts were unblocked as this act was a violation of Indian Fundamental Right of Freedom of Speech and Expression.

Twitter was severely criticised for compiling with the government and was called out for ‘action censorship’ and ‘bowing to the government overarch’.

These actions and demands by the government have been made in light of the farmers' protests being organised at the borders of National Capital, which has gripped the attention of domestic and international players. The resistance shown by Twitter gives a ray of hope for democracy and freedom of speech, and hope it prevails in coming times.

Free Media?

China bans the global news service BBC (British Broadcasting Company) in the Mainland China region and Hongkong. The reason cited by the government has been over ‘serious content violations’, accusing the service provider of violating the requirement to be true and impartial.