Among the measures announced by the Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman on 23rd August, 2019 to arrest economic downturn, the following are noteworthy: * Allow Bharat Stage IV (BS-IV) vehicles (which are purchased till 31st March, 2020) to remain operational for the entire period of registration; * Government shall lift the ban on purchase of new vehicles for replacing all old vehicles by its various departments; *...

-PTI New Delhi: State governments need to capitalise their credit institutions to get access to long-term finance and have better control over their credit flow, a NITI Aayog official said. The states have no control over the long-term finance right now, but nobody is stopping them from recapitalising finance corporations which will allow them to on-lend at attractive rates to entrepreneurs, NITI Aayog Special Secretary Yaduvendra Mathur said. “States can’t just wait that...

-The Hindu The agenda to set up a development bank is a welcome initiative, but questions remain on its design Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s press conference on August 23, announcing a slew of measures to boost the economy and financial market sentiments, had an interesting idea. It was about setting up a development bank. Ms. Sitharaman said: “In order to improve access to long-term finance, it is proposed to establish an organisation to...

-Hindustan Times It threatens individual sovereignty, undermines citizen rights, and is a lost chance to meaningfully grapple with data colonisation Data is a sovereign asset,” said the Union minister of railways and commerce, Piyush Goyal, at the G20 meeting in Japan. Goyal was against using free trade agreements to justify the free flow of data. Instead, he said, government restrictions on data flows would allow India to be able to use “personal,...

-The Hindu Nirmala Sitharaman said that India’s GDP continues to grow at a faster pace than the global economy and any other major economy. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of measures on August 23 to prop up the slowing economy. Addressing a press conference, Ms. Sitharaman sought to dispel doubts over the economy and the government’s growth agenda. Announcing that the global GDP growth may be revised downwards from the...