-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government on Friday cautioned people against the risk of virtual currencies, saying they are not legal tender and do not have any regulatory permission or protection in India.   In one of the sternest warnings by the authorities, the government said virtual currencies are not backed by government fiat. The caution comes against the backdrop of a surge in interest in such instruments, fuelled by astronomical...

-The Hindu As the U.S. loses interest in multilateralism in trade, India should actively try to arrest the organisation’s slide Less than 25 years after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was created, its future as a body overseeing multilateral trade rules is in doubt. The failure of the recent ministerial meeting at Buenos Aires is only symptomatic of a decline in its importance. Too ambitious? When the WTO was born in 1995, replacing the...

-The Hindu Business Line This brings higher returns; govt must spend more on R&D, roads: ICRIER paper New Delhi: Spending on agricultural research and development, including extension services, is at least 10 times more effective in reducing poverty than spending on fertiliser or power subsidies, an ongoing study has shown. Spending ?10 lakh on agricultural R&D can help lift 328 people out of poverty, whereas allocating the same for fertiliser or power subsidies...

-TheWire.in The model of development that was presented as a success story relies on patronising and providing incentives to large businesses while simultaneously suppressing wage incomes. By now, almost everyone in the country knows the one thing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the team around him excel in – the art of public relations and media management. This is the reason that the ‘Gujarat model’ of handling a state’s economy became such...

-Frontline.in The Assembly elections have put under intense scrutiny Narendra Modi’s Gujarat model of development which is touted as worthy of replication throughout the country. Audit reports of the CAG provide ample evidence of it being inefficient, corrupt and not beneficial to the common people. THE standard indicators of development, as is understood in theory and practice, comprise a range of indices, and not necessarily the level of private investment in...