Eyes on economic survey 2018 as budget session of parliament begins today

Eyes on Economic Survey 2018 as Budget Session of Parliament begins today

Eyes on Economic Survey 2018 as Budget Session of Parliament begins today on Business Standard. All eyes on Economic Survey 2018, it's a crucial budget session 2018 of Parliament. President Ram Nath Kovind's address to a joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

Budget 2018 All eyes will be on the Economic Survey on Monday, the first day of the crucial Budget session of Parliament. The last full Budget session of the 16th Lok Sabha will begin with President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to a joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha — his first after being elected to the office.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will table the Economic Survey for 2017-18, days ahead of the fifth and final full Budget of the current term of the Narendra Modi government on Thursday. Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian has announced a survey-dedicated webpage — #economicsurvey18. Amid speculation that the Modi government is thinking of advancing the Lok Sabha election from April-May 2019 to NovemberDecember 2018, the Economic Survey and the Budget will be gleaned for any such indication, and whether the Budget attempts to reach out to key constituencies of urban middle class and rural voters.

An important sideshow will be a meeting of opposition parties on Monday. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has convened the meeting of all the leading opposition parties to discuss their parliamentary strategy for the Budget session as well as electoral strategy for the forthcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

On Friday, Pawar had led a ‘save the Constitution’ rally in Mumbai on the occasion of the Republic Day. Several opposition leaders participated in the rally. The first half of the Budget session is from January 29 to February 9. After nearly a month-long break to give standing committees time to study Budgetary grants, the two Houses will meet again for the second half of the session from March 5 to April 6. The session will have 31 sittings — eight in the first half and 23 in the second.

After a truncated Winter session, which ended on January 5, the first half of the Budget session is also slated to be one of the shortest in recent times.

“Number of ‘full’ working days in the first phase of the Budget session are February 5, 6, 7 and 8. Just four days. This government cares two hoots about Parliament,” said Derek O’Brien, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader in the Rajya Sabha. While January 30 is martyrs’ day, there is a parliamentary holiday on January 31 on account of Guru Ravidas birth anniversary

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