-The Hindu India’s GDP growth continues to be powered by consumption, not investments A question being raised about the GDP estimates for the first quarter of this year (April-June) is: How should 8.2% GDP growth be interpreted in, or reconciled with, the overall context of some of the pronounced trends in the economy? These include the depreciating rupee, rising bank bad loans, or non-performing assets (NPAs), a trade deficit that has shot...

-TheWire.in The new series GDP data has been mostly replaced with corporate financial data for estimating manufacturing value-added, resulting in manufacturing assuming a higher share in India’s GDP and growing at a faster rate compared to the older series. New Delhi: Does the new method by which India calculates GDP (gross domestic product) data overestimate manufacturing output? This apprehension has been flagged by a key member of the Reserve Bank of India’s...

-Hindustan Times While a final conclusion on employment growth should wait for 2017-18 NSSO data, rosy estimates based on selective assumptions do not inspire much confidence . New Delhi: In a study prepared as a background report for the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, economists Surjit Bhalla and Tirthatanmoy Das have claimed that the Indian economy created around 12.8 million jobs (by principal status) in 2017. The authors also claim that net...

-The Hindu The falling Indian rupee will make oil imports costlier and lead to a rise in fuel prices Mumbai: After holding on for a day, the State-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) again increased the price of petroleum products such as petrol and diesel in the country on Thursday. The prices of petrol and diesel touched a new high on Thursday with Mumbai paying the maximum among the four metros. While petrol costs...

-Livemint.com Ecologist Madhav Gadgil, whose report on Western Ghats was rejected by the Kerala government, on what caused the Kerala floods and how the rebuilding process should be carried out Ernakulam (Kerala): Submitted seven years ago on 31 August 2011, ecologist Madhav Gadgil’s report on the biodiverse Western Ghats—a portion of which falls in Kerala—had warned that the combination of massive ecological destruction and extreme weather events trigger disaster. His words proved...