-The Indian Express Why assembly election verdicts should occasion a rethink on loan waivers, MSP raises The results of the elections to state assemblies should be a humbling experience for the BJP. Political pundits have started analysing the verdict, since the reasons for the BJP’s defeat have important implications for the parliamentary election of 2019. One factor that is being flagged by analysts is farm distress. Farmers across the country are not...

-The Indian Express In the absence of patience and vision, the loan waiver remains the most favoured response to farm distress Thousands of farmers from different parts of India marched to Delhi on November 29-30 to register their protest against the Narendra Modi government’s perceived apathy and neglect of farmers’ demands. They were basically demanding three things: One, debate in Parliament to discuss farm distress; two, one-time loan waiver; and three,...

-Livemint.com India’s statistical system suffered credibility shocks when the GDP series was released Last week, the NITI Aayog released the back series of gross domestic product (GDP) data on base 2011-12 for the years 2004-05 to 2011-12. The series was eagerly awaited by researchers as well as policymakers ever since the base was revised in January 2015. This release follows an unofficial release of the report of the committee on real...

-TheWire.in The new back-series GDP data, released four months before the 2019 general elections, fails several common sense tests. India’s back-series GDP (gross domestic product) data, released by the NITI Aayog just four months before the 2019 general elections, turn the basic laws of macroeconomics on their head. Here’s one that is most intriguing. The data show lower GDP growth during the UPA years, which is when the gross investment to GDP...

-ThePrint.in SBI report says bank’s performance will have to be rewritten based on the new data and this can be contentious due to questions over credibility. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government’s revised set of back-series GDP data, which slashed the average rate of growth during the UPA regime, pose “reconciliation problems regarding micro and macro data interpretation”, a State Bank of India (SBI) report said Thursday. A careful data interpretation will be...