-The Hindu Business Line Will help strengthen existing channels of distribution, says Finance Ministry New Delhi: The Centre’s social security scheme for the aged — the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) — will now also be available at small finance and payments banks, the Finance Ministry said on Friday. “To strengthen the existing channels of APY distribution, it is felt that these new payments banks and small finance banks will provide a boost to...

-The Hindu The former Chief Economic Adviser on India’s current slowdown in economic growth and the mix of policies needed to reignite it In a career spanning more than four decades, economist Kaushik Basu has donned many hats. He was Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India (2009-2012) and Chief Economist of the World Bank (2012-2016). At present, he is Professor of Economics and the C. Marks Professor of International Studies...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Sangh parivar affiliates Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh have urged the government to address joblessness and agrarian distress in the budget, sounding an alert before the 2019 general election campaign. The Manch, the Sangh's economic wing, has suggested the government shift focus and provide incentives to indigenous small-scale industries to generate more jobs. Farmer arm Bharatiya Kisan Sangh has advocated measures to make agricultural remunerative and demanded...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A minister in the Narendra Modi government on Thursday said he would launch a movement for a stringent law to check the country's population. Giriraj Singh said the campaign would be launched under the banner " Sanatan Dharm Bachao, Jansankhya Kanun Lao". He added that his "apolitical campaign" would be launched in his personal capacity and it was "not against Muslims". "Without controlling the population, the country is doomed," the...

-Livemint.com Farmers need structural reforms, crop diversification and greater public investment rather than subsidies and price support Indian agriculture has been relatively untouched by the structural reforms that lifted incomes in other parts of the economy. Low farm productivity meant that governments tried to improve the lot of farmers through price policy. The problem is that engineering a shift in the terms of trade through higher support prices usually leads to generalized...