-The Hindu Amitabh Kant attributes downshift to spate of measures including GST, RERA and IBC New Delhi: A spate of reforms undertaken by the government has led to the current slowdown in the country, Amitabh Kant, the CEO of policy think-tank NITI AAYog, said on Friday. This came as a note of caution from the senior official as he was advocating a series of policy decisions to revive the economy. Greater liquidity “Firstly, you...

-The Hindu The figure quoted by the government fails to completely take into consideration deliveries in private hospitals. Female foeticide continues to increase at an alarming rate, as per the Sample Registration System (SRS) data released in July for the period 2015-2017. The sex ratio at birth (SRB) has been dropping continuously since Census 2011, coming down from 909 girls per thousand boys in 2011-2013 to 896 girls in 2015-2017, to quote...

-The Hindu They can be an effective tool for rainwater harvesting With an increased variability of monsoons and rapidly depleting groundwater tables, large parts of India are reeling under water stress. A number of peninsular regions like Bundelkhand, Vidarbha and Marathwada have been facing recurring drought-like situations. Given the enormity of the crisis, at a recent NITI AAYog meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi explicated the need to implement innovative water management measures,...

  A recent press release by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) shows that the declared minimum support price (MSP) for most kharif crops to be marketed in 2019-20 is at least 50 percent above the cost of production. The official information related to the newly declared MSP, which came two days ahead of the Union Budget presentation, gives the impression that the newly re-elected NDA government has kept its promise...

-The Hindu An analysis of the NITI AAYog’s ‘Healthy States, Progressive India’ report released on June 25 shows that the usage of estimated figures in place of reported numbers, to calculate certain health indicators, has adversely impacted the final index score of certain States while boosting that of others. Skewed result The report had used an estimated number of births and deliveries to calculate two key health outcome indicators — “full immunisation coverage”...