-Down to Earth Government cites increasing pollution and heatwave in the state as reason for the ban The Government of Bihar recently banned felling of trees, citing increasing pollution as well as a fatal heatwave. Trees on private land, however, can be felled in the absence of a tree-protection Act in Bihar. The current order was passed under the Forest Conservation Act, DK Shukla, principal chief conservator of forests, told Down To Earth (DTE)....

-Livemint.com Arvind Subramanian’s conclusions about GDP growth figures are in the right direction. There’s no point being in denial Arvind Subramanian was the chief economic advisor (CEA) to the Government of India from October 2014 to June 2018. Among other things, he became well known and was praised deservingly for his Economic Surveys. He made that document interesting, useful and accessible. He also took it to the country by hosting online lectures...

-Livemint.com Many of the issues with India’s understaffed, overburdened police could stem from the growing criminalization of politics and reluctance for reform A brutal attack on a young doctor in West Bengal, allegedly by relatives of a patient who died on 10 June, triggered country-wide protests by doctors in the country. The incident highlights not just tensions in doctor-patient relationships but also points to a lack of respect for the rule of...

-Business Standard Unlikely to rise further as the government allowed imports, release stock held by Nafed Mumbai: With its price shot up sharply in the last few weeks, tur dal has started slipping out of consumers’ plate steadily. data compiled by the Union Ministry of Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution showed the maximum tur dal prices across the country is at Rs 110 a kg on higher side and average or model...

-The Hindu The new GDP series has some methodological and sampling problems Former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian recently claimed in a paper that India’s GDP growth from 2011-12 to 2016-17 was likely to have been overestimated. The Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council has rejected this claim, stating that his paper would “not stand the scrutiny of academic or policy research standards”. In a conversation moderated by T.C.A. Sharad Raghavan, Pronab Sen...