IT is cliché to say that the finance minister had to overcome ‘unprecedented challenges’ in making the annual budget. But,  T M Thomas Isaac had to literally overcome formidable and unprecedented challenges in preparing the annual budget of the state for 2019-20. The state’s economy as well as its exchequer was subjected to severe shocks in the recent past by natural and manmade disasters. The ‘note ban’ and the haphazard introduction of GST had severe adverse consequences on economic activities, especially small and medium enterprises and petty commodity producers.

THE more the prime minister and his government seek to brush off questions regarding the Rafale deal, the more they are getting embroiled in the quagmire of the murky deal. Ever since Prime Minister Modi went to Paris in April 2015 and announced the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter planes, instead of the earlier agreement to buy 126 planes, the deal has been enveloped by a veil of secrecy and controversy.However, some facts became self-evident.

PART 1- PLIGHT OF KISANSBY January this year, 300 districts across India had already been declared drought hit by various state governments. Among these districts is the district of Beed in Maharashtra. It was declared drought affected in October of last year, but even three months later, in mid January when I accompanied a district level team of the CPI(M) and Kisan Sabha to meet hundreds of affected people from around 25 villages in different talukas, there was absolutely no drought relief work in sight.

IN the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, people gave singular majority to the BJP.Now, after almost five years, a lot of people who had believed the promises of ‘achhe din’, are probably biting their tongues and considering whether they did speak too soon? BJP wrote in its election manifesto in 2014,“25 crore employment opportunities will pull the on rising unemployment rate down.” The BJP had also promised that 2 crore new jobs will be provided every year in the run up to the 2014 election. However, the reality is different; 11 million jobs were lost in the year 2018.

A LIST of companies under the scanner of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in the backdrop of demonetisation was announced in the parliament in March 2018.  This list contains the name of Prajasakti Printers & Publishers Pvt Ltd also. Basing on this, some concocted, baseless stories appeared in some sections of media.