-Newsclick.in Data confirms an acute demand crisis in rural India and beyond. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s latest statement on millennials contributing to the auto industry slowdown by shifting their preferences—choosing Ola or Uber ride-booking services instead of buying cars—is feeding many a meme on social media. Even before her statement, sections of industry and the Banking sector had been pushing this argument. Not just private Banking giants, such as Uday Kotak, but even...

-The Hindu The stimulus incentives hold promise, but structural reforms are nowhere on the horizon People who have been yearning for major economic reforms from the Narendra Modi government, it seems, will have to wait to have their dreams come true. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday presented the third round of stimulus measures to resuscitate the struggling economy, but once again these have largely failed to live up to the initial...

-The Hindu The over-reliance on the organised sector for official GDP data is causing a gross miscalculation. During the global financial crisis, it was said that the experts were behind the curve. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and financial sector experts continued to predict till October 2008 that the global economy would grow rather than shrink. They were way off the mark since the global economy was rapidly slipping into a great...

-The Indian Express Despite so many initiatives and schemes aimed at financial inclusion, only 40.90 per cent of SMF could be covered by the scheduled commercial Banks (SCBs), the report submitted by the RBI panel has said. The Reserve Bank of India’s Internal Working Group (IWG) to review agricultural credit — headed by Deputy Governor MK Jain — has raised several concerns on the farm front as lakhs of small and...

-The Telegraph Around 350 families have refused to vacate apartments constructed in violation of Coastal Regulatory Zone rules Bangalore: Politicians of all hues are making a beeline to a clutch of plush waterfront apartments in Kerala as the clock ticks on a demolition deadline set by the Supreme Court. The issue has raised wider questions: whether a state government that insisted on enforcing in letter and spirit a court order that lifted a...