-The Financial Express When several NGOs and others protested against the GEAC report, the UPA's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh decided not to give the final go-ahead. As farmers under the umbrella of the Shetkari Sangathana start their civil disobedience movement and plant the Banned Herbicide Tolerant (HT) GM seeds as well as Bt brinjal, chances are the authorities will treat this as yet another law and order issue and will arrest them;...

-Livemint.com * GDP estimates are based on accepted methodologies, says government * Subramanian made the claims in his latest working paper published on the Harvard University website New Delhi: India’s statistics ministry likely underestimated the impact of demonetization and the rollout of the goods and services tax (GST) on economic activity, leading to an overestimation of gross domestic product (GDP) figures, the finance ministry’s former chief economic adviser, Arvind Subramanian, has said. On 31...

-The Indian Express Methodological changes have led to overestimating GDP growth by 2.5 percentage points per year between 2011-12 and 2016-17. Actual growth is around 4.5 per cent. The promise of democracy is the periodic opportunity it creates for fresh beginnings. A government re-elected with such a resounding mandate should continue with the successful aspects of its economic policies. The most notable has been promoting economic inclusion via the public provision of...

-The Indian Express The BJP, now in the opposition, has accused the Congress of “milking” the Mandsaur case for political gains. Bhopal: Two years after the death of five protesters in two incidents of police firing near Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, family members of the victims have said they are still waiting for justice. The death toll would later rise to six after one protester succumbed to injuries allegedly suffered in police custody. The...

-The Hindu Business Line The government bears over Rs. 70,000 crore annually as subsidy to provide cheaper farm nutrient to farmers. The government is seriously thinking of giving fertiliser subsidy directly to farmers under the second phase of implementation of direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme, a senior fertiliser ministry official said on Thursday. In October 2017, the first phase of fertiliser DBT was rolled out, under which subsidy is being transferred to companies...