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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s a double whammy for Kerala. The State’s fond hopes that the Union Budget will redeem it unlike the Railway Budget have been dashed to the ground.

In November 2010, the BJP stalled Parliament for 21 days demanding a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum scam, making it one of the most unproductive sessions ever. The Congress was unbending in its stance that the investigation into the 2G scandal through the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), headed by a leader of the BJP, Murli Manohar Joshi, was adequate. Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal only conceded a parliamentary debate, which, he said, would allow for “doodh ka doodh aur pani ka pani.”

LUCKNOW: The recent announcement of a new team by the state BJP president LK Bajpai has created more problems for the party at a time when Lok Sabha polls are not far away.

BHOPAL: Obviously with an eye on the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha elections in the state, due nine months from now in November this year, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has been dishing out gifts for all and sundry. Of late, he is not announcing schemes or programmes that would bring development to the state and benefit the people indirectly or in the long run. He is simply pushing cash into the pockets of the people. Most of the announcements are intended to benefit the people directly and that, too, in terms of money.

Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram has kept his word. He did not present a typical pre-election soft budget and tried hard to strike a balance between giveaways and takeaways, leaving a large section of top-end tax payers, including the corporate sector and individual assessees, as well as the common man unhappy. The fiscal tightrope which he has been forced to walk on did not allow him to take risky steps. The poor performance of economy in 2012-13 has turned his hands even less flexible.

The maturity of India’s policy formulation process is stamped in what Mr P Chidambaram called as the last budget of the UPA-II government. Smartly the government has made the budget as a communication tool, an event which media dissects and disseminates ad infinitum. Read the budget speech, look closely at the body language of the expert communicator and one will agree with the uncanny communication process that goes into the making of the budget. Ask anybody the opinion on the budget and the answer will be in the positive.

P Chidambaram’s first full budget after taking over the ministry last August is a savings-investment budget.

Elections not being far away, Finance Minister Mr P. Chidambaram designed his fiscal exercise for 2013-14 in a way that should appeal to people in general - by ensuring stability of the tax regime, with little change in rates and tariffs, and yet providing for a large step-up in spending on social development programmes, especially benefitting economically backward sections as well as women.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing financial support of nearly $4.5 million to help conserve one of the world’s most critical but threatened forest areas in the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo.

The gross borrowing needs of OECD governments are projected to increase slightly to around USD 10.9 trillion in 2013, up from the already high level of USD 10.8 trillion in 2012, according to a new OECD report.