-The Hindu Issues such as levy on warehousing, agri-project imports pose a challenge With the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) — India’s biggest reform in the tax structure — the government has succeeded in moving a step closer towards making the country a unified common market, leading the nation’s economy towards growth and sustainability. India’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector has grown consistently over the past three years, reaching over...

-Business Standard Among various solutions, AIMO pushed for the supply of raw materials such as steel and aluminium to MSMEs at a lower subsidised cost Chennai: The TMSME (Traders, micro, small and medium enterprises) sector has seen a loss of around 3.5 million jobs in the past 4.5 years, according to a survey conducted by the All India Manufacturers Organisation (AIMO). Demonetisation and the goods and services tax (GST) are the main...

-The Hindu The Electoral Bond Scheme inhibits the citizen’s capacity to meaningfully participate in political and public life Early this year the government introduced an Electoral Bond Scheme purportedly with a view to cleansing the prevailing culture of political sponsorship. But the programme’s failings have been so blindingly obvious, and its consequences so utterly devastating to rectitude and Transparency in government, that even O.P. Rawat, who just retired Chief Election Commissioner, thought...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Exhorting the government to take necessary steps to formulate statistics pertaining to construction workers, domestic workers and women workers in the unorganised sector, the Central Information Commission has recommended the ministry of labour and employment carry out the exercise in line with provisions meant to promote “Transparency, accountability and conformity” in the RTI Act. Then Information Commissioner, M Sridhar Acharyulu (who retired on November 21), in...

-The Telegraph After debunking faith in numbers, assertions by powerful and charismatic leaders can be projected as the truth The comment on the weaponisation of economics by the former chief economic adviser, Arvind Subramanian, is a telling indictment of the way political interests trump such other considerations as veracity and Transparency. The latest round of revisions in the rate of growth of gross domestic product is a perfect example of the use...