-Firstpost.com The first reaction of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government after the party's debacle in the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan seems to be to waive farm loans, which is a telling comment on the state of the agrarian distress in India and the need to pay immediate attention to the crisis. This was expected, too, since 90 percent of the rural constituencies in Madhya Pradesh...
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A self-goal for India -Santosh Mehrotra
-The Hindu There are substantive reasons for the questions being raised about the new GDP back series Without in any way impugning the integrity of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), most knowledgeable people are asking: if most important indicators of the Indian economy were better in 2004-2014, how is the GDP growth rate higher in estimates just released (7.4% per annum since 2014 and only 6.7% per annum in 2005-2014)? This is...
More »No signs yet for escape from cycle of farm distress
-The New Indian Express The consecutive droughts, with intermittent floods, have shown the impact that climate change can have on the lives of farmers. BENGALURU: Farmers in the state are preparing for one more round of showdown with the state government, even as Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy made a beginning to deliver on his promise of farm loan waiver by launching the distribution of ‘Debt-free certificates.’ Though the programme has raised...
More »Government makes NPS withdrawal 100% tax exempt
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government has made the National Pension System (NPS) more attractive for investors, with the biggest bonanza going to 18 lakh central government employees. The Centre will contribute 14% of basic salary to their pension corpus, up from 10%. The employee’s contribution will remain at 10%, bringing the total contribution to 24%. Announcing the changes on Monday, finance minister Arun Jaitley said the entire withdrawal at...
More »Three years ago, key statistics panel revised UPA growth up, Niti Aayog rejected it -P Vaidyanathan Iyer
-The Indian Express Then Chief Statistician T C A Anant confirmed that the release of data was withheld. “Niti Aayog had issues with a particular proxy we used for corporate sector growth estimates,” Anant told The Indian Express. In what adds a fresh twist to the controversy over the downward revision of UPA growth data, it is now learnt that almost three years ago, the Central Statistics Office (CSO), in the...
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