Gold for brides as election nears

NEW DELHI: An India state will give gold worth about $530 (R7200) to every bride from a poor family, the latest budget give-away before a general election that must be held by May.

The north-eastern state of Assam is run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, 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.

The federal government announced cash handouts to farmers and tax cuts for the lower middle class last week. | African News Agency (ANA)