-The Hindu Business Line The new series data cannot really be faulted. But it is important not to repeat the policy mistakes that hit industrial growth The 2011-12 base backdated GDP series led to much discussion. The reduction in past growth rates gave them a political colour. It is unfortunate if the independence of the CSO and associated experts is questioned just because of this coincidence. A rebasing that uses much richer...

-Mongabay.com * In three years, India’s environment ministry approved diversion of over 20,000 hectares of forest land for developmental projects like mining, thermal power plants, irrigation, road and railway projects across India. * Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha together account for over 62 percent of the total forest land diverted during this period. * Diversion of forests for non-forestry projects has always been a contentious issue in India especially in light of poor...

-The Hindu The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will record biometric data including the fingerprints and iris scans of about 30 lakh applicants who have sought to be included in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) after having been excluded from the final draft published last year. Almost 30 lakh out of the 40 lakh people who found their names missing from the NRC had filed claims to be included during...

-The Economic Times KOLKATA: In a first such move, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee instructed state government officials to stop sharing data with the central government. In an administrative meeting in South 24 Paragana district on Thursday, Banerjee said that the state departments would have its own portals and store data on its own. She said that the NDA government accesses all data of the state government and uses those to...

-The Indian Express Farmers getting lower prices for their produce, much lower than the minimum support prices announced by the government for the kharif crops this year, has hit the rural consumption demand story. New Delhi: The consumption-driven story of India’s economic growth is expected to face a slowdown as wide concerns emerge about the weakening rural demand. At a time when public expenditure is likely to be curtailed by the obligation...