Steven Burke

1 Introduction Anemia complicating chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and health care resource utilization [1]. Anemia prevalence increases with advanced CKD, primarily due to inflammation-related processes: impaired erythropoietin (EPO) production [2-4] and restricted iron availability for erythropoiesis [4, 5]. Inflammation in CKD transforms interstitial renal cortical EPO-producing fibroblasts into EPO-nonproducing myofibroblasts [6].

On 1 February, the government unveiled its Union Budget for fiscal year 2022, which runs from April 2022 to March 2023. Public spending is set to increase 4.6% compared to FY 2021, while revenues are seen growing 9.7% year-on-year. The net result is estimated to be a still-large budget deficit, though it should narrow slightly from FY 2021’s estimated 6.9% of GDP shortfall, to 6.4% of GDP in FY 2022.