-The Economic Times The world is no stranger to farm debt crises like the one India is seeing today. Back in the 1980s, the Canadian parliament enacted a law to stop foreclosures on farm debt, after prices collapsed and interest rates jumped to as high as 24%. The law was in force for a dozen-odd years. It identified insolvent farmers, facilitated agreements between the borrowers and lenders, and helped some farmers move...

-Livemint.com Unless the convoluted arithmetic behind fiscal deficit gets as much attention as headline fiscal deficit number, creative accounting practices will go on Mumbai: The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been lauded for its ability to rein in the headline fiscal deficit over the past few years, which has arguably helped tame inflation. However, with reverses in key assembly elections earlier this month and Lok Sabha elections to be...

-The Hindu The former Chief Election Commissioner on the EVM controversy, why the Supreme Court’s verdict on criminals in politics is a missed opportunity, and electoral bonds The debate on the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) refuses to settle, with political parties continuing to voice their concerns about malfunctioning machines. Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi explains how EVMs work, why he is disappointed with the Supreme Court for refusing to...

-The Indian Express Last Wednesday, the finance ministry said that the autonomy for the RBI “is an essential” and both the government and the RBI have to be “guided by public interest and the requirements of the Indian economy”. New Delhi: AT the heart of the RBI-government standoff is a proposal by the Finance Ministry seeking to transfer a surplus of Rs 3.6 lakh crore, more than a third of the...

-Newsclick.in The Modi government has been trying to cut the RBI down to size for quite some time. The Modi government’s penchant for subverting institutions has now extended to the Central Bank of the country. Not content with eliminating the Planning Commission; decimating the finest universities in India; crippling the premier public sector unit of the country, the ONGC, by interfering in its decision making; bringing the nationalised banks to grief by...