-The Telegraph The finance minister's relief package, like some other interventions, is a case of smoke and mirrors India has jumped in with a Rs 1.7 trillion package of fiscal measure to provide relief to the poor and other vulnerable sections of its population stricken by the impact of the coronavirus crisis. The finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, unveiled the package with some flourish. But when experts pored over the measures, it became...

-The Indian Express Ahead of Sitharaman's press conference, the Sensex jumped 1500 points or over 5 per cent to cross the 30,000 mark. The rupee also rose 64 paisa against the dollar to settle at 75.24. To help the economy come out of the coronavirus shock, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package under Garib Kalyan Yojana that would largely benefit unorganised sector workers, especially daily...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The RBI has said deposits of demonetised notes with a value of over Rs 5,000 would be allowed just once in a bank account between now and December 30. The announcement not only lengthened the list of abrupt changes enforced since the note recall was announced on November 8 but also fuelled suspicion that the government is trying to dissuade people from depositing demonetised notes. The value of such...

-The Economic Times A new book by Bibek Debroy on Gujarat looks at how this much-talked about state has performed in economic terms. The author argues history, luck and administrative clarity have been the determining factors. There has been a discernible pickup in Gujarat's growth performance since the 10th Plan (2002-07), the five-year Plans being natural periods for breaking up the timeline. It's tempting to argue that there is nothing exceptional in...

KEY TRENDS   • In 2017-18, 24.8 percent of rural working-age men and 74.5 percent of rural working-age (viz. 15-59 years) women were not employed. In urban areas, 25.8 percent of working-age men and 80.2 percent of working-age women were not employed AB   • Both the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Consumer Pyramids Survey of the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE-CPDX) report the overall unemployment rate to be around 6 per cent in 2018,...