NEW DELHI: The Indian railway budget may no longer be a standalone financial plan and may instead be merged with the general budget as early as next year, with the government considering a proposal to combine them. "It's a possibility next year," Arvind Panagariya, vice chairman of NITI Aayog, the government's policy-making body, said on Monday, responding to a query on the possibility of merging the
rail and general budgets. NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy had recommended scrapping the rail budget. In a 20-page note titled "Dispensing with the Rail Budget" presented to the Prime Minister's Office, Debroy argued that the exercise had failed to be of use to the sector and had become a "mechanism to announce popular measures." Meanwhile, Panagariya said PM Minister Narendra Modi has made checking corruption a top priority. "In more than two years of the current dispensation at the Centre, there has been no single instance of allegation of major corruption," he said.
Speaking at India@75, an initiative of the Confederation of Indian Industry, hesaid, "We are making progress. However, corruption remains visible for the common man. We need to make it work at lower levels, including states." On the G20 meeting scheduled in China next month, he said India will take up the issue of international labour mobility, especially of professional workers, besides raising the issue of climate change. Panagariya is India's Sherpa for the forum.
"In the area of growth, one of the things I will emphasise is that don't be so pessimistic, at least India is growing at 7.5%. China, though its growth reduced at 6%, is still a $10 trillion economy, so 6% growth means $600 billion," he said.
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