-Business Standard The Shanta Kumar Committee on restructuring FCI has suggested the reach of the National Food Security Act be curtailed to 40 per cent of the population The National Democratic Alliance government set up the high-level Shanta Kumar Committee to restructure and reform the state-owned Food Corporation of India. Instead, the panel ended up providing a road map to restructure the entire farming and food security policy of the government. In...

-The Indian Express Rural wages in India have registered an average annual growth of 3.8 per cent in November, the lowest since July 2005, according to Labour Bureau data. The 3.8 per cent year-on-year increase is a significant drop relative to the two-digit growth rates prevailing until June, and the peak 20 per cent-plus levels of 2011 (see graph). "The numbers confirm the findings in our mid-year economic analysis that inflation is...

-The Hindustan Times Even with the prospects of a year of high growth and low prices, a clutch of disquieting data on the ground suggests that things are still tough, potentially testing the Narendra Modi-led government's ability to pull the economy up. Output in factories has fallen sharply and a depressing farm season this winter, along with a fall in rural wages, could prolong recovery. Simply put, the drag this time...

-The Times of India The man who has been appointed the Chief Economic Advisor to the government of India, Arvind Subramanian, was until recently urging the US to initiate disputes against India before the World Trade Organisation and also seeking changes in provisions within Indian patent law aimed at preventing frivolous patenting and preventing pharma companies from getting extensions on patents by tweaking existing drugs and passing them off as innovations. Subramanian...

-FirstPost.com What compelled a group of leading economists from India and abroad to shoot a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the government's job scheme - the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA? Is it to speak out against the government's desperation to throttle the scheme or did the economists sense any ulterior motive behind the government's move? A section of prominent Indian economists working out of the country or...