NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An India state will give gold worth about $530 to every bride from a poor family, the latest budget giveaway ahead of a general election that must be held by May.FILE PHOTO: People walk inside the premises of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters in New Delhi, India, December 11, 2018. REUTERS\/Anushree Fadnavis\/File Photo<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The northeastern state of Assam is run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is facing a battle for re-election because of low farm incomes and a lack of jobs that have turned off some of those who backed it in the last polls, in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The federal government announced cash handouts to farmers and tax cuts for the lower middle class last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut interest rates for the first time since 2017, in line with a government demand as it attempts to stimulate the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opposition Congress party has also been forgiving farmers\u2019 loans and announcing it would provide the unemployed with cash handouts in some of the states it controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But handing out gold to brides is new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tea-growing state\u2019s finance minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, allocated 3 billion rupees ($42 million) for the next fiscal year, from April 1, for the gold program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That would buy 875 kg of gold, enough for about 80,000 brides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA customary ritual which has been part of Assamese society for centuries is to gift a set of gold ornaments to one\u2019s daughter as a blessing as she leaves her father\u2019s home to start a new life,\u201d Sarma said in his budget speech on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the program should stop families falling into debt to pay for daughters\u2019 weddings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI feel that it\u2019s my solemn responsibility to stand with those fathers who cannot afford to gift a set of gold ornaments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Assam government would buy the gold from the RBI and give it to the beneficiaries directly, Sarma told Reuters on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The program would be limited to two women from each family with an income of less than 500,000 rupees ($7,000) a year. Each bride would get a \u201ctola\u201d, or 11.66 grams, of gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indian brides traditionally get gold, which helps make the country the world\u2019s second-biggest buyer of the metal after China. The World Gold Council expects India to consume 750-850 tonnes of gold this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Assam government hasn\u2019t stopped at gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sarma said the state would also give electric bikes to girls who score at least 60 percent in school-leaving exams, for getting to places of higher studies.Iranians mark 40 years since Shah’s fall<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He rejected opposition accusations he was making \u201cfake promises\u201d to win votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Political parties and candidates find different ways to give presents to voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past, gifts have included electric fans, laptops, pressure cookers and televisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the election law, the gift-giving has to stop once an election date is set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An India state will give gold worth about $530 to every bride from a poor family, the latest budget giveaway ahead of a general election that must be held by May.FILE PHOTO: People walk inside the premises of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters in New Delhi, India, December 11, 2018. REUTERS\/Anushree Fadnavis\/File Photo The… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3107,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions\/3107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}