We are delighted to announce the success of yet another edition of our Annual Endowment Lecture on Budgets, held at Indian Institute of World Culture in Basavanagudi, Bangalore, on 14th July 2023. This year Mr. Sanjay Kaul delivered an insightful critique on the topic Karnataka’s Post-election State Budget: Some reflections. Mr. Kaul is a Development Policy Analyst and former Indian Administrative Service officer of the Karnataka cadre. He also recently released his noteworthy book titled ‘An Alternative Development Agenda for India’. Mr. S Krishna Kumar, Former Additional Chief Secretary, Karnataka chaired the session, which was attended by intellectuals and members of the civil society. Also in attendance was L K Atheeq, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Department, Government of Karnataka.
In the lecture, Mr. Kaul skillfully examined the budget allocations sector-wise, and offered his thoughts on the promises of Gruhalakshmi, Gruhajyoti, Yuva Nidhi, Annabhagya, and Shakti, made by the government, and its commitment to their delivery. While the state may have limited fiscal space to take on new development programs of aspirational departments, Mr. Kaul stated that it is possible to innovatively “re-engineer schemes to improve outcomes” regardless of constraints.
L K Atheeq also offered some clarifications and comments at the end of the session. “Some of the points that Sanjay Kaul mentioned are very taken and very useful for me to begin leveraging them as well,” he stated.
Some photographs of the lecture can be viewed here:
