-The Hindu The National Crime Records Bureau must be more prompt and open in releasing data Indian prisons make news when there is a jail break, a prison riot or when the lawyers of high-profile businessmen or economic evaders fight against their extradition to India. And in the midst of the election process this year, the release of the data-driven report, the Prison Statistics India 2016, published by the National Crime Records...

-Livemint.com * A third of the firms in MCA-21 database used to calculate GDP found dodgy * Results from the MCA-21 database survey were so disappointing that two reports based on it had to be junked NEW DELHI: A key database introduced in India’s new gross domestic product (GDP) series has now been found to be full of holes, raising fresh questions over the controversial and contested GDP numbers in Asia’s third-largest economy. A...

-The Hindu In the heated debate on jobs, the crucial link between macroeconomic policy and unemployment has not been flagged Innumerable tasks with respect to the economy await the winner of the parliamentary elections now under way, but two may be mentioned and they are connected. The first is to review the conduct of macroeconomic policy. Though it must come across as arcane, this is an element of public policy that makes...

-Down to Earth The tribunal has asked UP chief secretary to immediately act on the mismanaged solid waste from the pilgrimage Both the governments, at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh, claimed to have organised a 'swachh' — clean — Kumbh in the winter of 2018-19, but the National Green Tribunal seems to differ. In fact, the quasi judicial body rang alarm bells on Aprill 22, 2019 about host city Allahabad being on...

-The Hindu If it’s the government’s case that NSSO figures are suspect, what has it based policy decisions on? Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said last week, “we definitely have a data crisis,” and blamed academics for creating a “false narrative”. Yet, at the heart of the data crisis in India is the Central government, which has been holding back important data. Most recently, it did...