-The Indian Express Turnaround in farm prices is the only good news in today’s overall dismal economic environment. The Narendra Modi government’s first term (June 2014 to May 2019) was marked by benign consumer food price inflation. At a mere 3.3% year-on-year, it averaged below even the 4.3% for overall retail inflation. Politically, the ruling party benefited, given that there are far more consumers of milk in India than dairy farmers. The...

-The Indian Express Why tax sops are not enough? What can policy makers do? The story so far: A worryingly persistent slowdown dragged economic growth in India down to 5% in the fiscal first quarter, its weakest pace in more than six years. And while the recent weeks have seen the possible reasons for the slowdown, as well as the government’s policy measures to ostensibly help revive the economy being put under...

-The Hindu Electricity sector growth, however, slows to 4.75% in July from 8.19% in June; food inflation at a 14-month high Industrial activity rebounded in July to 4.3% on a broad-based recovery across key sectors such as mining, manufacturing and construction, official data released on Thursday showed. In a separate release, data showed retail inflation rose in August to hit a 10-month high of 3.21% on quickening food price rises. Growth in the Index...

-The Indian Express There is an emerging consensus among FMCG majors that, like their automobile counterparts, the impact of the slump is more evident in rural India and that, in geographical terms, the north is the worst hit. New Delhi: The impact of the deepening consumption slowdown is being felt beyond discretionary purchases such as vehicles and durables with fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies manufacturing small-ticket items such as soaps, biscuits...

-The Hindu Attention needs to be paid to both cyclical and structural dimensions of India’s present economic slowdown India’s current economic slowdown is due to a combination of two underlying trends. First, there is the short-run cyclical slowdown exhibited by a number of high-frequency indicators, reflecting a significant fall in demand, especially for sectors such as automobiles, Consumer Durables and housing. Second, there is the more serious long-term fall in investment and savings...