-Business Today RCEP trade deal: The group said that the Indian govt should not agree to the RCEP even in future as it will be a 'bad deal for democracy, for farmers, workers, will subvert our sovereign laws and compromise India's industrialisation potential'. Forum for Trade Justice, a pan-civil society network has welcomed the failure of the 16 negotiating countries to reach a consensus over the conclusion of the world's largest free...

-Hindustan Times Studies show that natural disasters tend to lower life expectancy more in women than in men. The recent Bihar floods and flood alert warnings in Kerala are just the latest in a long line of natural disasters that periodically strike in India, leaving behind a trail of devastation. The focus afterwards is on assessing the loss of lives and economic cost and, of course, rehabilitation. But though it is...

-Newsclick.in Offtake from the Public Distribution System is stagnating although there are millions who need more food. Cereal stocks of wheat, rice and coarse grains maintained in the so-called central pool hit an all-time high of 742 lakh tonnes in July this year and in August were only slightly lower at 713 lakh tonnes, according to the department of food and public distribution’s monthly bulletin. Compared with 2015, grains stocks have zoomed...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Indian economy grew at its slowest pace in more than six years at 5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019-20, deepening worries about subdued factory output and resultant job losses. It also fanned concerns about the Narendra Modi government’s ability to crank up demand amid clear indications that urban consumption had also started to slacken after rural demand went into a deep rut several quarters...

-Economic and Political Weekly An overwhelming proportion of the poor live in low-income states in India. These states are home to over two-thirds of the children in the 0–14 age group. Therefore, provision of comparable levels of basic social services and physical infrastructure is important to ensure balance and stability in the Indian federation. This underlines the importance of intergovernmental transfers. Conceptually, general purpose transfers are given to enable the states...