Page 43 - EW March 2021

BARE CUPBOARD FOR WORLD’S

India’s high-potential human capital: continuous low priority

million — on foot and private transport (because all pub- ment’s fiscal deficit has rocketed from the budgeted 3.5
lic transportation was discontinued from the midnight of percent of GDP to an unprecedented 9.5 percent of GDP
March 24) since the partition of British-ruled India into the (gross domestic product) estimated at Rs.195.86 lakh crore
independent nations of India and Pakistan in 1947. cf. the budgeted Rs.224.89 lakh crore.
Against this backdrop of national turmoil, a major un- In this connection, it’s pertinent to note that the Fiscal
der-stated casualty are 21st century India’s 500 million Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003
youngest citizens in the 0-24 age group — the world’s larg- requires the Union government to ensure its fiscal deficit
est national cohort of children and youth. The total outlay in any financial year does not exceed 3.5 percent of GDP,
of the Central government for public education budgeted although it allows exceptions in special circumstances.
at Rs.93,224 crore for 2021-22 is 6.13 percent less than the This legislation piloted by former Union finance minis-
Rs.99,312 crore budgeted for 2020-21. And the consensus ter Yashwant Sinha to compel the Central government to
within the academic community is that Budget 2021-22 has maintain macro-economic stability and contain inflation, is
comprehensively ignored the National Education Policy self-explanatory. If government borrows unlimitedly from
(NEP) 2020, the outcome of hard slog of two high-powered the Reserve Bank of India — i.e, prints bank notes without
committees — T.S.R. Subramanian (2016) and Dr. K. Kas- commensurate increase in the output of goods and services
turirangan (2018) — which was promulgated with much — too much money will start chasing too few goods and
fanfare on July 29 last year. result in runaway inflation which, it is commonly accepted,
Inevitably, the comprehensive lockdown of business, hits the poor at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid
industry and commerce for almost half the financial year hardest. However, the exceptional circumstances latitude
2020-21 has turned government tax revenue projections has given a wide loophole to government. Since it was en-
topsy-turvy. The Centre’s direct and indirect tax revenue acted almost two decades ago, the FRBM Act ceiling has not
has plunged from the budgeted Rs.20.20 lakh crore to been respected in spirit by any government at the Centre
Rs.15.55 lakh crore (revised estimate) in the year ending with considerable expenditure being made ‘off-budget’.
March 31, 2021. As a result, borrowings in 2020-21 have But with the Covid-19 mayhem and resultant lockdown
ballooned from the budgeted Rs.7.96 lakh crore to more causing the economy to contract by 8 percent — the worst
than double at Rs.18.48 lakh crore, and the Union govern- recession in the history of post-independence India — and a

MARCH 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 43