-The Times of India Former economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das , who played a key role during the demonetisation drive, spoke to TOI's Sidhartha & Surojit Gupta, four months after retiring from service in May. He says he does not agree with the criticism that implementation of demonetisation had serious shortcomings. Excerpts: * What is your assessment on the state of the economy? The macroeconomic parameters, except the growth figures which are down...
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The loan-waiver mountain -Jayanta Roy Chowdhury
-The Telegraph New Delhi: If the Narendra Modi government caves in and grants a nationwide farm loan waiver, the tab could surge to a whopping Rs 3 lakh crore, dwarfing the UPA's initiative in 2008 that cost a little over Rs 52,000 crore. "We have warned that the exchequer will go bust if we grant a general amnesty on farm loans, which will cost over Rs 3 lakh crore," a senior finance...
More »Union Budget 2016-17: Mere eyewash or some concrete steps
In the age of social media, various sections of the Indian polity and civil society have reacted publicly in diverse voices, following the presentation of the Union Budget 2016-17 by Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley. An assessment of the Union Budget 2016-17 has been done in the following paragraphs by the Inclusive Media for Change team, based on a number of media reports, Government documents (including the Budget documents), and reports...
More »Applause and the fine print -Devadeep Purohit
-The Telegraph Arun Jaitley today drew loud cheers from the fiscal conservatives as he displayed "prudence" and stuck to the fiscal deficit - which captures the government's borrowing requirements - target of 3.9 per cent of the GDP for 2015-16 and pegged it at 3.5 per cent of the GDP for 2016-17. As the achievement came despite all the problems that the Indian economy faced - the Economic Survey presented details of...
More »Food insecurity -TK Rajalakshmi
-Frontline A critique of the report of the high-level committee on restructuring the FCI and reviewing its role by TK Rajalakshmi SOON after assuming power at the Centre, Narendra Modi's National Democratic Alliance government set up a high-level committee on re-structuring the Food Corporation of India that was mandated to make the food management system more efficient. It was headed by Shanta Kumar, former Union Minister for Rural Development and former Chief...
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