Category Center for the Study for Finance and Economics

Hindenburg’s bet against Adani

Few can vouch for the veracity or otherwise of Hindenburg’s research that raises serious allegations of wrongdoing against the Adani group. The present author certainly cannot. These charges could be accurate to varying degrees but that does not put Gautam Adani in the company of fly-by-night operators or the likes of arms brokers and others who profit purely from government patronage. Adani is a first-generation entrepreneur who has dreamed big, executed with excellence and has built chunks of the Indian economy’s essential infrastructure, whether ports, power plants, grain storage or renewable energy.

Budget 2023- 24: Pro-Growth and CAPEX Conundrum

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has come up with a Budget that did not deserve a thumbs down from the Nifty, which ended the day’s trading 0.26% lower. This was more on account of the troubles of the Adani Group and, by association, of public sector banks with exposure to the group.

The big boost to capital expenditure — including grants in aid of capex; the increase in capex is Rs 3.2 lakh crore, to Rs 13.7 lakh crore — is welcome and suggests that the Budget is pro-growth. That pro-growth glow loses some sheen when we take into account the total size of the Budget. It has come down from 16% of GDP in 2021-22 to 15.3% in 2022-23 and is slated to fall further to 14.9% next fiscal year. This reflects the longstanding inability of the system to significantly increase the share of taxes in GDP — the only way to raise total expenditure is to borrow, which means that fiscal correction also brings down the size of total spending.

Sustainable Environment & the Budget: Need for Consonance

The Union Budget 2023-24 is expected to be a barometer for the Central Government’s policy commitments toward the conservation of the environment and sustainable development. The public policy challenge for the government is how to strike a balance between economic growth and sustainable development, which are at variance due to the onslaught of climate change and its increasing economic costs. On the one hand, the government wants to achieve a $ 5 trillion economy by 2025 and $26 trillion by 2047; on the other, it has set a target of net-zero emissions by 2070. A balanced Budget that intertwines economic growth with inclusive and sustainable development for restoring the ecosystems is needed.

Union Budget 2023- 24: Boosting the Demand in Amrit Kaal

The IMPRI Center for the Study of Finance and Economics (CSFE),  IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, hosted an interactive panel discussion on the topic “The Amrit Kaal and Union Budget 2023-24” on 2 February 2023, under the IMPRI 3rd Annual Series of Thematic Deliberations and Analysis of Union Budget 2023-24, as part of IMPRI #WebPolicyTalk. 

Amrit Kaal and Union Budget 2023-24 #TowardsAccountability

Video: The Amrit Kaal and Union Budget 2023-24

The Amrit Kaal and Union Budget 2023-24 | Panel Discussion | #TowardsAccountability #IMPRI Center for the Study of Finance and Economics (CSFE), IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi invites you to an IMPRI #WebPolicyTalk series: The State of Public Finance…

Global and Domestic Perspective of the Forthcoming Budget 2023-24

This article discusses the overall global and domestic context in which India’s 2023-24 Budget will be presented on Wednesday 1 February 2023. The overall context sets the broad boundaries the Budget and its specific proposals must be viewed. It should be noted that while the Union Government’s Budget presentation (along with accompanying documents such as The Economic Survey, Finance Bill, Memorandum Explaining the Provisions of the Finance bill, Statement of Fiscal Policy under the FRBM, Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management, Act, 2003, and others) is customarily the prime economic event of the year, Union Government’s economic and fiscal policy initiatives are undertaken throughout the year. Therefore, the Budget should not be taken in isolation. Professional analysts would not rely on just the Budget Speech to assess the Budget of a particular year.

Budget 2023- 24: Unorganised Sector continues to Suffer

The Union Budget for 2023-24 has come at a time when the economy is ostentatiously doing well but is facing challenges both internally and externally. The unorganised sector is suffering due to the policies the government has been pursuing for some time. Externally, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing ‘New Cold War’ are adding to the problems. Both these challenges needed to be addressed in the Budget. Unfortunately, that is not in evidence.

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