India pledges billions for farmers in ‘make-or-break’ budget

NEW DELHI: India pledged to spend $5.2 billion dollars to double the income of struggling farmers and also boost a rural employment scheme as it unveiled its annual budget on Monday under pressure to balance much-needed spending with fiscal prudence.

India is now the world’s fastest-growing major economy, but years of drought and a failure to create jobs for a burgeoning young population has left millions of rural Indians struggling and led to deadly protests in recent weeks.