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If the dreams of this Union Budget have to become a reality, two important aspects need to be addressed -- transparency and efficiency, says former Revenue Secretary Sivaraman.

The need of the hour is to double down on defence reforms with strategic foresight.

An economic revival would grant India the resources for power projection but strategy matters even more if those are scarce 

A Budget is an imperative or otherwise a government will drift aimlessly, though that often seems to be the case even with the most minutely specific Budget. Having said that, one must wonder why there is such a fuss each year when the Finance Minister of India is about to present the Budget?

The new budget does little to advance the very objectives the country has outlined for itself.

Given the preponderance of the Pakistan army, expecting deeper, substantive cuts in the defence budget is unrealistic, especially against the backdrop of a deteriorating security and strategic environment.

हमें हर हाल में उन कार्यक्रमों में निवेश जारी रखना चाहिए जिनका उद्देश्य पोषण बढ़ाने के लिए सामाजिक सुरक्षा, आरंभिक बाल विकास, शिक्षा और जल एवं स्वच्छता हो

या अर्थसंकल्पामागील मूलभूत तत्त्वज्ञान भारताला हक्काकडून सक्षमीकरणाकडे जाण्यास मदत करणे हे आहे.

The Digital India Mission was launched in 2015 by the Government of India with the aim of transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. Over the past decade, it has played a pivotal role in driving India’s digital transformation. As the mission marks its 10th anniversary, this report makes an assessment of its impact so far and explores its further potential. It evaluates the budgetary trends and examines outco

Efficiency of delivery by cutting red tape should be the top priority this year.

For the first time in 30 years, Elections-2014 has thrown up a decisive Parliament. The Treasury Bench does not have to do number-crunching all the time, to push policy initiatives, legislative initiatives and even budgets - which have more often than not been passed in the midst of din and dust.

This report examines the role of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and their grantees—the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI)—in shaping political outcomes in Bangladesh. The analysis is set in the backdrop of the ouster in 2024 of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government. The report examines allegations of covert infl

India's Navy has for too long been neglected when money has been allocated. The latest defence budget suggests that may be starting to change, though much of the new allocation will be used to pay off previously acquired expensive naval platforms.

The current gap in global adaptation finance for developing countries is estimated at US$194-366 billion per year. This brief highlights the critical role of domestic public funding in driving adaptation initiatives. While international climate finance mechanisms exist, their effectiveness is limited by slow disbursement processes and regional disparities in fund distribution. Public finance management systems can act as catalysts for mobilising

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s. International trade has been severely impacted due to, among others, budgetary shortfalls, reduced access to medical equipment, and an overall decline in economic activity. Even before the pandemic hit, international trade was held hostage by trade wars in a deeply polarised world; COVID-19 further exposed the faultlines of the globa

2004 is a significant year for Europe. In May of this year, the European Union (EU) will induct ten new members, eight of which were part of the former Communist regime of the Soviet Union. While four of these East European states (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) are struggling with mounting budget deficits and contemplating awkward spending cuts, France and Germany (the dominant European powers) are immersed in a deep economic

The response to the country’s new defense budget suggests that Beijing continues to be tone deaf to regional anxieties.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has undergone many changes since Xi Jinping became general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2013. Efforts at modernising the PLA have been conducted in earnest for the past 10 years through the overhaul of the organisation and the introduction of latest technologies to make it battle-ready. This paper describes these capability-related and institutional changes in China’s military, wh

Since Xi Jinping became general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2013, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has witnessed an accelerated modernisation drive. Following the 2015-16 organisational reforms, the CPC further standardised its services-level force structure and upgraded its military doctrine, combat capabilities, and weapons systems. This report analyses recent improvements in the structure, including the creation of t

On 3 September 2025, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) held a grand parade in Beijing, showcasing ballistic and cruise missiles, nuclear triad components, unmanned platforms with countermeasures, and conventional systems from across its services. The event marked the 80th anniversary of China’s ‘War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression’, which Beijing interprets as culminating in Japan’s surrender to the Allied Powers in September

An Indian maritime expert feels China, which had increased its defence budget several-fold in order to retain or recover its territories in the disputed area, is also cleverly diffusing the situation by having joint military exercises with countries around the area to prevent them from banding together against its claims.

What is a matter of grave concern has been the lopsided priorities of the government towards the military vis-a-vis the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) that have come to the fore.

Independent India’s copyright law has mostly centred around facilitating “access”. This is because India is a large country with a predominantly poor population, limited research facilities and budgets, and constrained access to knowledge-driven products and services. The politics of standard-setting in international copyright frameworks, however, has prevented government from realising a completely accessbased copyright regime. It has had

The defence component of the national budget accounts for 14% of central government expenditure, but gets less than 5% of media space. Virtually no discussion on the issue takes place in Parliament either. A call for increased resources for national defence usually goes out only when defence spending by Pakistan and China makes headlines.

The moment finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a mere 4% nominal increase in defence budget pegged at Rs 1,47,344 crore for 2010-11, members of Indian strategic community started showing their frustrations.

This brief discusses the challenges faced by urban local bodies (ULBs) in India in accessing urban climate finance (UCF), and proposes solutions based on successful strategies used by some of them. The hurdles include institutional barriers and limited capacity. The brief finds that ULBs that have met with success in accessing UCF overcame the obstacles through early sensitisation programmes and global network connections. It offers plausible sol

Budget cuts and internal priorities in Europe threaten India's access to climate funds and clean tech, urging stronger ties with BRICS, South Korea, and Australia.

In 2015, the United Nations agreed to end hunger in all forms by 2030. While India has committed itself as a stakeholder in the 2030 agenda for development, its own record in reducing hunger has been less than satisfactory. Latest data from the National Family Health Survey-4 show an improvement in nutritional indicators of children under-five. However, there are huge differences across states and social groups. Nutrition should thus remain high

The Union Finance Minister surprised many with his social sector-centric budget. No one expected the Modi government to go for enhancing the MNREGA by Rs 5000 crore or to have a huge kitty of subsidies ($37 billion) aimed at the poor. There seems to be a vision towards giving India a universal social security system for all and especially the poor.

ore reassurance comes from the fiscal deficit target for 2018-19 set at 3.3 per cent of GDP.

In the Union Budget this year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seems to have tried his best to address the numerous issues being faced by the micro, small and medium enterprises and to invigorate them. For this industry, the way forward is through a reformist social programme which will aid the weak and inefficient enterprises.

Since September 11, 2001, Pakistan has been widely, and publicly, acclaimed as an ally in the Global War on Terrorism by the United States. Early this year, the Bush Administration presented a Bill titled Targeting Terrorists More Effectively Act of 2005 to the Congress for budgetary approval.

If there is one thing on which all the ¿Dravidian parties¿ of Tamil Nadu stand united today, it is their criticism of the Union budget, presented by fellow Tamil leader Palaniappan Chidambaram. In doing so the DMK, the PMK and the MDMK, allies of the Congress at the Centre, have restricted their criticism to the proposed tax on the daily withdrawal of money from one¿s own bank account.

Beginning in 2017, the first Trump Administration steered United States (US)-China relations from engagement to competition. Thereafter, Biden largely built on this policy, while giving indications of moving towards a phase of “competitive co-existence”. Under Biden, the US sought to reassure China that it was adopting a strategy of “de-risking” and not “de-coupling,” and its goal was to adopt a technology export regime that would als

The GDP growth does not mean much to the average voter. But prices do that matter as inflation cut into the budget for healthcare and education for children. Thus what will ultimately decide the outcome of the elections will be inflation and the government's inability to control it.

At the current rate of around thirty-four billion tons of CO2 emissions per year, we could exhaust our carbon budget in less than a decade

Those who wish to blindly ape the Donald Trump-era United States' trade policy clearly have never bothered to think hard about the economic consequences of their actions in India

Growth is too weak in Europe today to support the necessary fiscal consolidation of the Member States. And without growth, there will be no budgetary and fiscal consolidation, says Pierre Sellal underlining the need for a growth pact.

While the common man or woman has to save for hard times and cut corners on everything, the same is not happening to the budgets of the Central and state governments.

The financial health of the Indian Railways, the single largest employer in the Government of India, has been in a dismal state for some time now. With the recent merging of the railways budget with the general budget, it has become a daunting exercise to conduct an analysis of railway finances. Yet, it is no doubt in the national interest to not only locate the shortcomings in the system but also explore solutions to improve performance. This pa

The govt’s budget needs to expand by at least one-fourth to accommodate the necessary capital spend.

While President Obama has been categorical that the new US defence strategy should not be seen as a drawdown of the U.S., the important question is how the proposed budget cuts are going to affect certain weapon platforms such as the F-35.