-Livemint.com The agriculture ministry estimates show that production of key crops like rice, wheat and pulses will be at record levels during the year New Delhi: Buoyed by a normal monsoon in 2016 after consecutive years of drought, India’s foodgrain harvest is likely to break past records, show second advance estimates released by the agriculture ministry on Wednesday. Total foodgrain production is estimated at an all-time high of 272 million tonnes in 2016-17,...

-The Hindu Electoral reforms announced in the Budget are not what they are claimed to be — they will neither cleanse our Politics nor bring transparency Given his interest in cricket, this must be called Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s ‘doosra’. His announcement on electoral reforms in his Budget speech combined an element of surprise, some degree of deception and a sleight of hand — all that go into a doosra in cricket....

-PTI The inter-ministerial panel is looking at suggesting market reforms in a big way and increasing focus on sub-sectors of agriculture like animal husbandry, poultry and fisheries Hyderabad: A committee formed by the Centre to double farmers’ income by 2022 is considering major reforms in agriculture sector, like adopting a profit-centric approach and to aim at increased productivity and reduced cost of cultivation. The inter-ministerial panel, constituted in April last year, is also...

-Livemint.com Windfall gains and remonetisation claims are still uncertain, but the Indian economy has suffered a short-term pain for sure On 8 November, 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs1,000 notes, which constituted 86% of the currency in circulation. Exactly three months later, where does the Indian economy stand today? In an interview to Mint after the Union budget, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das claimed that...

-Livemint.com MGNREGS has to cover significant ground to evolve as an effective demand driven asset creating public work programme Union finance minister Arun Jaitley’s claim that he was making the highest ever allocation to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in this year’s budge made headlines. Here are five questions which can help understand why MGNREGS related discussion needs to go beyond talks of budgetary allocation. * Is 2017-18 record allocation for...