-The Telegraph It must be ensured that growth does not slide down further Economic news has been increasingly dismal for some time. The decline in economic activities since January-March 2018 accelerated this year, gathering pace in recent months and prompting concern it could turn into a recession. Some commentators argue the economy is in a recession; others disagree, saying growth is decelerating. Since recessions are defined as periods of negative real gross...

-The Telegraph While the corporate tax cuts are a long-term positive, this does not dismiss the case for near-term consumption support The government relented on fiscal discipline to steeply reduce corporate taxes on September 20; the lowest is now 17 per cent for new manufacturing units. The stock market soared, seeing earnings grow after successive downgrades for nearly nine years — about the same time as the investment shortfall that lower taxes...

-The Hindu Business Line Joining the RCEP could be counter-productive given the existing inefficiencies of Indian producers. These need to be fixed first To be or not to be, that is the question … This seems to be the best way of describing India’s engagement in the negotiations for adopting the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the mega regional trade agreement of 16 East Asian countries. When the Bangkok round of the...

-The Indian Express A cut in personal income tax or GST slabs would have spurred the economy more in the short term but the corporate tax cut is beneficial for the economy in the long term. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement to cut corporate tax rates on Friday morning was a welcome surprise for the Indian economy that has been struggling with growth deceleration. According to reports, the government has cut the...

-The Telegraph More than half of the country's small and marginal farmers continue to be left out of the ambit of formal finance A recent report by the Reserve Bank of India found that despite a plethora of schemes aimed at financial inclusion, only 40.9 per cent of small and marginal farmers have so far been covered by the banking system. Small and marginal farmers are defined as those with operational land...