-The Hindu The slowdown is an outcome of supply-side constraints, says the economist The official GDP growth estimate for the July-September quarter, at 4.5%, is the lowest in 26 quarters. Rathin Roy, Director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, and former member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, discusses the causes of the economy’s troubles and suggests possible remedies. Edited excerpts: * The Finance Minister says the economy is...

-Financial Express A study by ICRIER researchers Ashok Gulati and Pritha Banerjee shows how problematic the fertiliser policy is—for farmers, industry, the environment and the government. India’s experience with fertilisers, in the later part of the Green Revolution, prompted it to adopt a policy of subsidising fertilisers. In 1977, the country had a total NPK (nitrogenous, phosphatic and potassic) fertiliser consumption of 4.3 million metric tonnes (mmt) and per hectare usage...

-Livemint.com Pronab Sen, director IGC India, speaks about the state of the economy, the challenge before the 15th Finance Commission and the controversy surrounding India’s statistical system NEW DELHI: Pronab Sen, country director of the International Growth Centre (IGC), had a long and distinguished career in the government as the principal adviser in the Planning Commission, the first chief statistician of India as well as the chairman of the National Statistical Commission....

-The Indian Express The latest NCRB report does not enlist reasons for farmer suicides. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs told Parliament last week that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) had done away with diversified data on farmer suicides in its latest report as many states reported the figure to be “nil”, and hence recording reasons for the suicides was “untenable”. However, an analysis of previous NCRB data shows that states...

-The Hindu Such an ambiguity has serious implications for the design and beneficiaries of schemes MEAnt to help them Who is a farmer? What is the government’s definition of a farmer and how many farmers are there in India by that definition? Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar failed to answer that question when it was asked in Parliament last week. The government’s ambiguity has serious implications for the design and beneficiaries of the...