-The Hindu ‘But cumbersome anti-graft apparatus can delay decisions'   With a slew of scams vitiating the government's policy-making environment and holding up reforms, the economic survey 2011-12 on Thursday advocated need for a ruthless crackdown on corruption, but cautioned that a large and cumbersome anti-corruption bureaucracy could impact decision-making. “While we need to ruthlessly crack down on corruption, it must, at the same time, be recognised that the fear of a large and...

-The Telegraph The economic survey — prepared by Kaushik Basu, chief economic adviser to the finance ministry — has some gratuitous advice for politicians like Mamata Banerjee who announced earlier this week plans to amend state legislation that will require co-operative banks to take government permission before seizing mortgaged property while trying to foreclose loans given to defaulting farmers. “The state provides the laws and enforcement to enable people to sign contracts,”...

-The Telegraph The economic survey has challenged an international assessment that has ranked India 125, or near-bottom, among 132 countries on environmental performance, but has acknowledged that air pollution has increased to alarming levels. The survey, released by the Union government today, has questioned the methodology of the Environmental Performance Index 2012 that has assigned air quality in India a rank of 132, the worst in the world, and similarly low ranks...

-The Economic Times   Could the Centre freeze the job guarantee scheme during peak agriculture season?  The controversial demand from the agriculture ministry found an echo in the economic survey released on Thursday, but was quickly dismissed by rural development minister Jairam Ramesh. While lauding the flagship scheme, the survey listed a few other measures as the way forward. "While the overall performance of MGNREGS has been good, there is scope for improvements...

-The Business Standard   Major subsidies extended by the government are likely to jump to Rs 1,34,411 crore during 2011-12 The Survey has warned of deteriorating fiscal health due to a mounting subsidy burden. The huge outgo over the past year has been largely on account of the global rally in crude oil prices, the fertiliser subsidy and state-controlled foodgrain prices, it said. It also blamed ‘coalition politics and federal considerations’ for holding...