-The Indian Express Net direct tax collections during April 1-September 15 grew just 5% to Rs 4.4 lakh crore — against year’s target 17.3%. This below-than-expected growth in direct tax collections will muddy the government’s fiscal math The impact of a slowing economy is showing up in government revenues with net direct tax collections in the first five-and-a-half months of 2019-20 making up just a third of the full-year target. Net direct...

-The Indian Express Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Telangana are the top three states, having disbursed the third instalment to almost 16.35 lakh, 13.99 lakh and 11.03 lakh farmers, respectively. Uttar Pradesh, which accounts for one out of every four farmers in the country, has not yet paid the third instalment under PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) to a single farmer, according to the last update Monday night on the scheme’s...

-The Indian Express Government should explore all avenues to expand capital expenditures From a level of 8.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017-18, quarterly GDP growth fell to 5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019-20, a fall of 3.1 percentage points. The slowdown of the Indian economy is no longer in dispute. Thankfully, the government has come out of denial mode. The critical question is: What should...

-Newsclick.in Data confirms an acute demand crisis in rural India and beyond. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s latest statement on millennials contributing to the auto industry slowdown by shifting their preferences—choosing Ola or Uber ride-booking services instead of buying cars—is feeding many a meme on social media. Even before her statement, sections of industry and the banking sector had been pushing this argument. Not just private banking giants, such as Uday Kotak, but even...

-The Hindu The stimulus incentives hold promise, but structural reforms are nowhere on the horizon People who have been yearning for major economic reforms from the Narendra Modi government, it seems, will have to wait to have their dreams come true. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday presented the third round of stimulus measures to resuscitate the struggling economy, but once again these have largely failed to live up to the initial...