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Budget consultation with the Finance Minister of India
Early last week, I was invited to a one-to-one meeting with Ms Nirmala Sitharaman ji, the Union Finance minister to share inputs on the forthcoming budget. She was keen on understanding the fiscal policy aspirations of the NGO sector and other insights into how best to grow the rural economy. While this presented me with an opportunity to share my views on the regulatory, taxation, CSR and other norms related to the Civil Society Sector, it also gave me a practical first hand feeling of the seriousness of intent and sincerity of purpose of the Finance minister. Preparing a budget
Social mis-engineering
The inequities that India’s caste system has created has been attempted to be stalled or reversed through the constitutional mandate of Affirmative action. Increasingly, one has forgotten the basic tenet of ensuring justice and fairness to all citizens and the sociopolitical eco-system has only been exploiting the sentiments of religion and caste. The flagrant abuse of the system is neither revocable nor constructive but our political and religious forces seem to be unmindful of this. Read my article on this subject in today’s Deccan Herald.
Paying our taxes: Should we or shouldn’t we?
A few months ago, Ms Sneha (name changed) had been to the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) branch office near her home to pay the house tax. She was aware that she was eligible for a 5% discount if she paid the taxes due for the current year before the 31st of May. The concerned clerk at the MCC office asked her to leave her filled in form and her mobile number with him. He mentioned that he would call her within a week or two once he had verified the details and she could pay the tax after that. Considering
Are the grains rice only, or do they include other grains like Ragi and Jowar? For health reasons the middle classes and the wealthy are now moving away from rice and moving back to other grains which had fallen out of popularity. But our schemes have tended to focus on rice.