• Burmese
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
18 °c
Ashburn
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Asia

Roads Before Welfare: India’s Modi Faces Dissent Over Spending Shakeup

The Irrawaddy by The Irrawaddy
May 19, 2015
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0 0
A A
Roads Before Welfare: India’s Modi Faces Dissent Over Spending Shakeup

A health worker weighs a child under a government program in New Delhi

2.7k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

NEW DELHI — As Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes one year in office, his cuts in federal welfare spending on the poorest of India’s 1.25 billion people are coming in for sharp criticism, including from within his cabinet.

In a break with India’s socialist past, Modi has saved money on federal social and subsidy expenditure and pumped it into an infrastructure stimulus he hopes will trigger a spurt in economic growth.

The government says lower welfare spending will be compensated for by giving state governments a larger allocation of tax revenues to spend as they choose. But state chiefs, government officials and a cabinet minister have warned that the spending shakeup endangers the country’s most vulnerable.

RelatedPosts

A Familiar Lie: Myanmar Junta Denies Deadly School Bombing

A Familiar Lie: Myanmar Junta Denies Deadly School Bombing

May 13, 2025
142
How Myanmar Junta Uses Air Force to Fight Its Corner

How Myanmar Junta Uses Air Force to Fight Its Corner

May 13, 2025
130
JFM: 12 ASEAN Billionaires Fueling Myanmar Junta Terror Campaign

JFM: 12 ASEAN Billionaires Fueling Myanmar Junta Terror Campaign

May 13, 2025
319

Maneka Gandhi, women and child development minister in Modi’s cabinet, has said the impact of the policy will be borne by India’s estimated 300 million poor.

“This may result in a situation where the focus is lost on critical programs related to malnutrition of children … nutrition for pregnant and lactating mothers,” Gandhi wrote in an April 27 letter to the finance minister, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

“I am afraid to point out that political fallout of such a situation can be grave.”

Those warnings have been echoed privately by at least three impoverished states who say they are being shortchanged.

In his first full-year budget, approved by parliament on May 7, Modi halved funding for a scheme that gives millions of poor children free food and drastically cut allocations to make clean water available in rural areas.

On the other hand, funding for roads and bridges more than doubled and is now higher than the sum allocated to education.

The cuts to nutrition and water stand out because of the precarious condition of India’s poor. Four of 10 stunted children in the world are Indian, more than sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2013, the country recorded 50,000 maternal deaths. About 1.5 million children die each year before the age of 5.

Modi’s first year in office has seen a string of successes, including forging closer ties with major trading powers, boosting foreign investment and cutting red tape.

His approval ratings remain high, although he faces growing headwinds in the countryside, where bad rains and low crop prices have affected the 70 percent of the people that live there. The fear is that the spending squeeze will hit when the most vulnerable need more help.

“Increasing signs of rural distress in India make Modi’s cuts politically risky,” said Milan Vaishnav of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

‘Supply Side’

Modi’s gamble is that infrastructure investment will generate dividends for the poor in time for the next general election by increasing the economy’s capacity to grow through better roads, ports and railways.

At the same time as taking away central funding, Modi has increased the share of taxes given to states to 42 percent from 32 percent, money that, if well spent, can cover the shortfall from the spending cuts.

The policy shift is championed by economists in a new body called Niti Aayog, or policy commission, Modi’s replacement for the Soviet-style Planning Commission set up by post-independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.

It is headed by Columbia University’s Arvind Panagariya, who advocates fiscal stimulus to invest in infrastructure and restore growth, and rely on the growth to later finance health and other social spending.

One senior government official aware of the strategy said his main priority this year was to find ways to efficiently spend the ramped-up rail and road budgets.

“This has an element of risk because it is not clear how effectively this stimulus can actually be delivered on the ground due to leakage, weak capacity, and so on,” Vaishnav said.

Junior Finance Minister Jayant Sinha said the emphasis was on the supply side so the rural economy grows without overheating, but denied programs were being cut.

He pointed to increased funding for a rural work scheme that was a flagship of the last, left-leaning government.

“Yes, there are certain programs where we have had, from the central side, a reduction,” he told Reuters. “But that’s because we are going through a reset of the fiscal architecture,” he added, referring to states’ increased share.

States Protest

States will this year receive about US$28 billion more taxes, while the cuts reduce support to central programs run by states by about $18 billion, according to the Center for Budget and Governance Accountability.

While that’s an overall gain of $10 billion, poorer states who rely more on central support say they face net losses.

Naveen Patnaik, chief minister of the impoverished state of Odisha, lodged his protest in an April 29 letter to Modi, saying the new policies put a burden of $335 million on Odisha, a cut that is “beyond its means.”

“The loss … is not going to be set off by the 10 [percentage point] increase in devolution,” he wrote. “This will have an adverse impact on the social economic development of some of the most vulnerable and backward regions of the country,” he said in the letter seen by Reuters.

Officials from the health ministry shared his concerns, telling a parliamentary panel that the budget will have a “major impact” on plans to provide free medicine and strengthen clinics.

“Past experience shows that if spending is left to the states … [health] will take a back seat,” the panel said in its report.

Health Minister J.P. Nadda has publicly denied a shortfall in the health budget.

Either way, rural health care is precarious.

“Health workers don’t come to our village, there is no government help,” said Ayat Mohamad, from the state of Haryana, waiting with his undernourished 9-month-old grandson at Delhi’s federally run Kalawati Saran hospital.

The hospital is filled with children from rural areas suffering from malnutrition worsened by poor hygiene.

Your Thoughts …
The Irrawaddy

The Irrawaddy

...

Similar Picks:

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang
Burma

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang

by Hein Htoo Zan
November 28, 2023
97.9k

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army troops are opening roads and pathways through forests for people to flee Kokang’s capital as...

Read moreDetails
Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public
Burma

Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public

by The Irrawaddy
February 7, 2024
88.5k

People’s Defense Force says junta troops told every household in the village to send one member to witness the double...

Read moreDetails
Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State
War Against the Junta

Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State

by The Irrawaddy
November 29, 2023
86.9k

Brotherhood Alliance member says it now has complete control of Kokang’s northernmost section after the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 125...

Read moreDetails
Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks
Burma

Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks

by The Irrawaddy
December 4, 2023
58.8k

The junta said deserters would not be punished for minor crimes, highlighting the military’s shortage of troops as resistance offensives...

Read moreDetails
As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue
Burma

As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue

by The Irrawaddy
April 19, 2024
46.6k

The junta’s No. 2 has not been seen in public since April 3, sparking rumors that he was either gravely...

Read moreDetails
Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow
Burma

Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow

by The Irrawaddy
February 12, 2024
44.4k

Ethnic armed grouping says it will continue Operation 1027 offensive until goal of ousting the junta is achieved. 

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Neighborhood Watch

Neighborhood Watch

Saving the Spirit of Shwedagon

Saving the Spirit of Shwedagon

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Fury Over China’s Support for Myanmar Junta Eclipses Quake Aid Gratitude 

Fury Over China’s Support for Myanmar Junta Eclipses Quake Aid Gratitude 

6 days ago
1.2k
Inside the Myanmar Junta’s Post-Earthquake Theater of Control

Inside the Myanmar Junta’s Post-Earthquake Theater of Control

6 days ago
1k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Resistance Briefly Captures Junta Battalion HQ in Bago

    Myanmar Resistance Briefly Captures Junta Battalion HQ in Bago

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • At Least 11 Schoolkids Massacred in Myanmar Junta Air Raid in Sagaing

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Thousands Still Homeless as Naypyitaw Rebuilding Stalls

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Breaking the 60-Year Political Cycle in Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • JFM: 12 ASEAN Billionaires Fueling Myanmar Junta Terror Campaign

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.