Watch Nidhi Razdan: Why is the government announcing new schemes and sops in India?

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In India, Modi-led BJP government’s decision to slash cooking gas prices by Rs 200 a cylinder is a huge sop ahead of assembly elections in five states later this year and the Lok Sabha polls in the spring-summer of 2024.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/india-modis-lpg-price-cut-targets-women-and-polls-1.97836991  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #India #Modi

Transcript

00:00Ahead of assembly elections in five states that are due later this year and the Lok Sabha

00:08polls next year, the Centre made a significant announcement.

00:11It announced that cooking gas prices were being cut by Rs 200 per cylinder.

00:16This is important because inflation is currently a big problem in India.

00:20Retail inflation is at a 15-month high and this is largely being driven by retail food

00:26inflation which is at a high not seen since January of 2020.

00:30So that means for the last few months people are having to deal with much more expensive

00:35vegetables, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, you name it, everything is much more expensive.

00:41And the government is rattled by this, acutely aware that rising prices are something that

00:46could impact it electorally.

00:48This decision to cut cooking gas prices is also aimed at another important vote bank

00:53of the Modi government or in fact any political party today and that is women.

00:57It is understood that BJP leaders across states have been giving feedback to the party leadership

01:03that women voters in particular have been badly hit with these rising prices and they

01:08are extremely unhappy about it and that the government needed to step in and intervene.

01:12So this may not be the last sop that we hear from the Modi government in the run up to

01:17elections because these inflationary pressures are there.

01:21Moreover, the Congress governments in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the Congress there have

01:25also announced and made promises of certain schemes that would make LPG cylinders just

01:32450 or 500 rupees per cylinder which is still much less than what is available on the market

01:38today.

01:39So there are going to be competitive politics that will be played over important economic

01:44policies and that really could hold the key to the next general election.

01:51For more information visit www.osho.com

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