-The Economic Times Government’s forced mega merger of public sector banks could scupper economic recovery. I am not saying we maintain a Panglossian countenance, that we smile away every difficulty. But, in any real economy, the mood is very important,’ observed Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das, speaking at an event in Mumbai late August. Sound advice. Sentiment matters. Irrational despondency can be as damaging for the economy as ‘irrational exuberance’. But...

-Business Standard Aiming for unachievable growth rates would compound past errors. The economy has to lower its sights, and do some hard thinking about how to come out of the present hole, writes T N Ninan There is a general sense that the economic growth problem came upon us suddenly in the last few months. In some ways, it did — for example, through the continuing fallout of the collapse 11 months...

-The Times of India blog Last week, NDA government succeeded in getting contentious amendments to RTI Act passed by Parliament. Social activist Aruna Roy, who was at the forefront of the movement to persuade Parliament to enact the original law, speaks to Anindo Dey about the development: * The government said the RTI Act amendments set right the anomaly of the Information Commissions, which are statutory bodies, being treated on a par...

-The Telegraph Call to Kovind to back law he helped draft New Delhi: Former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has started an online petition to persuade President Ram Nath Kovind to stand by the transparency law he helped draft as a member of a parliamentary standing committee in 2004. While the petition, started on Friday, is finding traction, more such letters are being planned to appeal to the President’s conscience so that he...

--The Indian Express Replacing subsidies with direct cash transfers to farmers’ accounts will empower them as well as consumers. In her budget speech, the Union finance minister (FM) said: “At the centre of everything that we do, we keep gaon, garib aur kisan in mind.” Here then is a small mantra for her to transform the lives of the kisan and the poor in rural areas. Just streamline the food and...