-Business Standard Chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian discusses the Budget, goods and services tax, Centre-state relationship and larger issues facing the economy with Dilasha Seth, Arup Roychoudhury and Indivjal Dhasmana. Edited excerpts: * In the mid-year economic analysis, you talked of revisiting the fiscal numbers for 2016-17. Is it a view of the chief economic advisor (CEA) or that of the government? I see my role as a member of the government. I...

-The Hindu We need to provide full Internet at prices people can afford, not privilege private platforms. This is where India’s regulatory system has to step in The airwaves, the newspapers and even the online space are now saturated with a Rs. 100 crore campaign proclaiming that Internet connectivity for the Indian poor is a gift from Facebook which a few churlish net neutrality fundamentalists are opposing. In its campaign, Facebook is...

-Livemint.com NSSO report on land and livestock holdings estimates that around 95 million hectares of land was classified as operational holdings in 2012-13 New Delhi: How much land is actually cultivated in India? Depending on the data source, you might have to give or take the total area of FRAnce. Consider this: The latest National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) report on land and livestock holdings estimates that around 95 million hectares of...

-DNA The report said it will ease the exit of those farmers who find farming unattractive or non-viable and economically strengthen those farmers who want to stay and raise the scale of operational holdings. Opening farmland for 'liberalised leasing' through government-run 'Land Banks' can be a 'win-win reform' in the Indian farm sector, stated the latest report of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog taskforce on agricultural development. The report...

-The Hindu A complex picture emerges from the analysis of a year of Mumbai sessions court rulings on sexual assault: false cases foisted by parents, wide variation in the sentences, societal prejudices and vulnerabilities at play, and a tendency for investigating high-profile cases with greater rigour Over half of all sexual assault cases decided by Mumbai’s sessions courts in 2015 involved either parents filing cases against young couples who had eloped, or...