Budget 2018–19 : How The New HoR Plans on Using Its Money

Ashoka University’s Student Government finally gets a budget

Aashay Verma, Class of 2019

What differentiates Ashoka University’s 4th House of Representatives (HoR) from all the previous ones the most is perhaps the fact that it has an actual budget of Rs. 75,000 to work with and bring about substantial change on campus. A meeting was convened on 26th March 2018 where the Cabinet finalized its Budget Proposal for 6 months, from March to August 2018, inclusive.

This article is a graphical summary of the various amounts allocated to the ministries. These graphs are made from the numbers given in the Budget Proposal document that was sent to you today.

Above is the pie-chart distribution of the budget to give you an idea of which ministry is getting how much of the “pie”. If you find it difficult to match the colour on the chart with the key, start with Cultural Ministry (the biggest share), and move clockwise as you move down the key.

Below is a more detailed representation of the information, with the amounts allocated (in Rupees):

Now let us delve a little deeper and see what each ministry proposes to do with its pocket-money:

Cultural Ministry
Arnav Mohan Gupta’s ministry has the highest share of HoR’s budget for the next few months, with Rs. 25,000, which it has proposed to spend like:

Campus Life Ministry
With Rs. 15,000, the Campus Life Ministry under Ritunjay Shekhar has proposed to allocate its budget such:

The Summer Events, as mentioned in the Budget Document, are to be held in the Summer Semester.

Sports Ministry
Under Abdul Mannan Majid, the Sports Ministry has proposed the following distribution of its Rs. 13,000 budget:

For a more detailed version of this, please refer to the Budget document.

Technology Ministry
Kanan Gupta’s Technology Ministry, also called The TeX Ministry, has been given a purse of Rs. 10,000 which it has planned to spend such:

Development Pipeline is a Ministry project for implementing student projects. For more information, refer to the detailed Budget Proposal.

Environmental Affairs Ministry
Adit Bhardwaj, the Environmental Affairs Minister, has proposed the following use of the ministry’s Rs. 5,000:

Finance Ministry
Akila Ranganathan’s ministry has a budget of Rs. 1,000 which has the following proposed distribution:

Academic Affairs Ministry
Gahena Gambani, Academic Affairs Minister, has planned to allocate her ministry’s budget of Rs. 500 such:

Parliamentary Affairs Ministry
Under Deep Vakil, the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry’s Rs. 500 budget has been planned to be allocated such:

In addition to these allocations, the HoR has proposed to keep aside Rs. 5,000 as “House Reserve”.

For further details on any of these allocations by the ministries, please refer to the Budget Proposal document. If you don’t find an answer there, the HoR is holding a meeting today, 27th March 2018, for all students to come and ask questions to the ministers about how they have allocated money from the respective budgets of their ministries, and suggest any changes.

Attending this meeting is important for everyone, and specially for those who have questions regarding the budget, because:

1. This is the first-ever budget of a Student Government, and it is in our hands to ensure that it is used judiciously

2. If the ministers have overlooked something in their considerations, it is your chance to rectify that and ensure more efficient use of funds.

The Budget proposal will be passed in the HoR on 28th March 2018 (Wednesday) after incorporating changes, if any, suggested during today’s meeting.

Aashay Verma is the Managing Editor for the Business & Economics column at The Edict