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3 days ago | 
thehindu.com | Samreen Wani |Vignesh Radhakrishnan
In 2021, an analysis of excess deaths — the increase in the death tally over expected numbers based on previous years (2015-2019) — shows that the number was nearly six times more than the reported COVID-19 death toll. This was the year when the delta variant of the SARS-COV-2 virus wreaked havoc across the country. Some States had a much higher multiple than the national average.
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2 months ago | 
thehindu.com | Samreen Wani |Vignesh Radhakrishnan
Globally, there were 88 Internet shutdowns due to communal violence in 2023 and 2024 and all of them were in India. In fact, nearly 95% of all Internet shutdowns ordered by the state due to communal violence since 2018 have occurred in India, says a report by Access Now, a digital advocacy group. Chart 1 shows the number of Internet shutdowns in India due to communal violence and India’s share in global shutdowns for the same reason.
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Feb 3, 2025 | 
thehindu.com | Samreen Wani |Vignesh Radhakrishnan
The closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the ability of rural schoolchildren to divide three-digit numbers and read a paragraph in their regional language. The latest data for 2024, published in the Annual Status of Education Report (Rural), broadly indicates that rural schoolchildren have largely recovered from the learning loss experienced during the pandemic. However, the recovery appears uneven when the data are analysed in detail.
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Feb 1, 2025 | 
thehindu.com | Nitika Francis |Vignesh Radhakrishnan |Samreen Wani |Sambavi Parthasarathy
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her eighth consecutive Budget on Saturday (February 1, 2025). Ms. Sitharaman announced a major rejig of tax slabs, providing long-awaited relief to the middle class. In the run up to the Assembly election in Delhi, a city that often votes with its wallet, this is a timely intervention as far as the BJP is concerned. Here is a collection of stories on taxes from The Hindu on Union Budget 2025. Published - February 01, 2025 06:53 pm IST
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Feb 1, 2025 | 
thehindu.com | Samreen Wani |Nitika Francis |Sambavi Parthasarathy |Vignesh Radhakrishnan
Funding for the various production linked incentive schemes (PLI) has more than doubled in the recent Union Budget 2025-26 underscoring the importance for the manufacturing sector and the government’s push for making India self-reliant and a major global manufacturing hub. The outlay for PLI schemes increased by over 108% in FY26 (Budget estimates BE) to Rs 19,482.58 crore from Rs 9,360.36 crore in FY25 (Revised estimates RE).
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Feb 1, 2025 | 
thehindu.com | Vignesh Radhakrishnan |Samreen Wani |Sambavi Parthasarathy |Nitika Francis
In FY26, the government is expected to spend ₹50,077.95 crores on higher education. The allocation increased by ₹3,595.6 crore, when compared with the revised estimates for the year FY25. While the allocation has increased in absolute terms, spending on higher education as a share of overall budget, has stagnated. While absolute change in allocation gives an idea of what the government is focussing on, analysing the allocations as a share of the total Budget is more prudent.
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Feb 1, 2025 | 
thehindu.com | Vignesh Radhakrishnan |Samreen Wani |Sambavi Parthasarathy |Nitika Francis
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for 2025, unveiling the eighteenth Cabinet’s plans for funding the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in various fields. Allocations for all schemes related to AI have seen significant increases since the previous Union Budget.
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Feb 1, 2025 | 
thehindu.com | Nitika Francis |Vignesh Radhakrishnan |Samreen Wani |Sambavi Parthasarathy
Despite announcing that no income tax needs to be paid up to an income of Rs 12 lakh under the new regime, the government is still expecting the share of income tax in gross tax collections to increase in the financial year FY26. In contrast, the share of receipts from corporate tax in the gross tax collections is expected to slightly decline in FY26.
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Feb 1, 2025 | 
thehindu.com | Vignesh Radhakrishnan |Nitika Francis |Sambavi Parthasarathy |Samreen Wani
Schemes promoting electric mobility (e mobility) in India have got a renewed push in the Union Budget 2025-26 with a funding increase of over 20% compared to last year. Collective allocation for such schemes has risen from Rs 4,434.92 crore in 2024-25 (revised estimates: RE) to Rs 5,322 crore in the latest Budget (Budget estimates: BE).
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Jan 28, 2025 | 
thehindu.com | Vignesh Radhakrishnan |Samreen Wani |Sambavi Parthasarathy
The share of the Union Budget allocated for the social sector has declined rapidly in recent years. Data show that the outlays to most schemes under the rural development, education, health, and social welfare heads have either declined or stagnated. Table 1 shows the allocations for various social sectors as a share of the total Budget. Expenditure on health as a share of the total Budget declined from 2.47%-2.22% in the FY18-22 period to 1.85%-1.75% in the FY23-25 period.
