A life of timepass.

On 3 February, "Mark Zuckerberg's wealth plummeted as much as $31 billion.., the third biggest one-day drop in wealth since Bloomberg Billionaires Index began compiling data in 2012," BS. As Zuckerberg lost wealth, two Indian billionaires, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani zoomed above him on the Ferris wheel of billions of dollars, TOI. Yesterday, Adani's wealth was estimated at $88.5 billion compared to Ambani's $87.9 billion by the Index. "With an almost $12 billion jump in his personal fortune, Adani is the biggest wealth gainer this year," ET. Makes us proud as Indians. Meanwhile, in this year's Budget, "Buoyant revenues -- net tax revenues are higher than budgeted -- have been deployed towards fiscal consolidation rather than broad-based support to a struggling economy," wrote Yamini Aiyar. "Household incomes have stagnated at about 80% of their pre-pandemic levels and demand for MGNREGS remains elevated." But, allocations for MGNREGS has been cut from Rs 1.1 trillion in 2020-21 to Rs 730 billion next year, for rural development from 1.09% of GDP to 0.89% of GDP, and for the food subsidy bill from 2.74% of GDP to 0.80% of GDP. The total amount of welfare expenditure has been cut from Rs 5.3 trillion last year to "roughly Rs 4 trillion for next year", wrote Praveen Chakravarty. "In other words, the government will be spending Rs 10,000 less in welfare on every poor family in the bottom half of the population." This saving of Rs 1.3 trillion will be used for capital expenditure. The government managed to spend the budgeted amount last year, by paying Rs 611.31 billion to clear all the dues of Air India, including its entire debt and the fuel dues to oil companies, before transfer to the Tata Group, ET. "When the government struggled to spend 30% higher amount in capital expenditure in the current year, can it really spend 36.2% more in capital projects next year? "At $222 billion, the projected fiscal shortfall for 2022-23 is wider than this year's yawning $213 billion gap," wrote Andy Mukherjee. The government may force the Reserve Bank (RBI) to print new money. "But with the US Federal Reserve embarking on an aggressive monetary tightening campaign, extending the pandemic-era glut of easy rupee liquidity may be risky. A combination of loose fiscal and monetary policies at a time of high trade deficits and an inflationary buildup could destabilize the rupee -- and scare away foreign investors from India's asset markets." But why is the government taking such risks with elections to assemblies of 5 states, including Uttar Pradesh, the largest, starting this month? NDTV. It can be because of "The political incapability of the Opposition to make the economy an issue; a belief that there is nothing wrong on the economic front; or a deep rooted conviction that the Center is on the right path as far as the economy is concerned," wrote Roshan Kishore. What about jobs? "In the mid-2000s, a group of students at college in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, jokingly referred to themselves as a 'nowhere generation'," BBC. " 'Well, our life has just become about timepass,' they would say. (Timepass is an Indian English word which means spending time without a purpose in life." They can vote. Their only purpose.