-NDTV Lenders have loosened purse strings, but some sectors are monopolising bank loans. Hence the clamour for more credit Credit flow to industry, or the lack of it, has been a bone of contention between the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). While RBI and its supporters assert that bank lending is now growing at a brisk pace, the government and industry lobbies insist that the credit taps remain shut....

-The Indian Express Why assembly election verdicts should occasion a rethink on loan waivers, MSP raises The results of the elections to state assemblies should be a humbling experience for the BJP. Political pundits have started analysing the verdict, since the reasons for the BJP’s defeat have important implications for the parliamentary election of 2019. One factor that is being flagged by analysts is farm distress. Farmers across the country are not...

Just a few days ahead of the Kisan Mukti March in Delhi NCR, the provisional results of the Agriculture Census 2015-16 became available in the public domain. The report, among other things, highlights the long-term problems affecting Indian agriculture including fragmentation of land holdings (particularly the marginal and small ones) and shrinking average size of farm land. The provisional results of the latest Agriculture Census reveal that at the national level...

-The Hindu There are substantive reasons for the questions being raised about the new GDP back series Without in any way impugning the integrity of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), most knowledgeable people are asking: if most important indicators of the Indian economy were better in 2004-2014, how is the GDP growth rate higher in estimates just released (7.4% per annum since 2014 and only 6.7% per annum in 2005-2014)? This is...

-Newsclick.in According to patients’ accounts, the 108 helpline either did not respond, or the condition of the ambulance was reported to be ‘not fit’ to ferry patients. The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) staged demonstrations on December 10 in Shimla outside the district commissioner’s (DC’s) office, against the deteriorating health facilities for women in government hospitals in Himachal Pradesh. There are three government hospitals in the state capital – Indira Gandhi Medical...