-The Indian Express This assumes significance given that on August 31 last year, the Adani Group signed another deal to acquire a controlling interest in the country’s SECond largest airport, in Mumbai — the Airports Authority of India cleared that takeover on January 12. BOTH THE FINANCE Ministry and Niti Aayog had put on record objections regarding the 2019 airport bidding process, which were over-ruled, clearing the way for a clean sweep...

-TheIndiaForum.in The uniqueness of agriculture calls for continued & not less government intervention. Reform of Indian agriculture is needed, but this must be to enhance state capacities and strengthen regulatory oversight. What would be a “better government that is better”? Over the past 30-40 years, all over the world, the word “reform” has come to acquire a very specific meaning. Summed up as the Washington Consensus, it proposes reducing the role of...

-The Indian Express Simultaneously, it has started a review of all model concession agreements — the legal contract that forms the basis of the public-private partnership — across four key infrastructure SECtors: airports, ports, electricity and railways. AMID the unprecedented concentration of power in at least seven core SECtors in corporate India, from pharma and telecom to airports and ports, the Competition Commission of India has launched a set of detailed investigations...

-Hindustan Times This entails addressing prevailing systemic deficiencies along with managing the added burden of Covid-19. India’s health SECtor requires a two-fold intervention by the government. The extraordinary situation created by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has exposed the vulnerabilities of our fragile health-care system, demands an equally extraordinary intervention by the government. The expectation from the Union Budget 2021-22 is for the central government to lead from the front in the health...

-The Indian Express The Union budget should focus on enhancing credit flows to the small and marginal farmers, increase investment in health and education. The first advance estimates of GDP for 2020-21 are much better than the earlier market consensus and shows the inherent strengths of the Indian economy. The economy is expected to contract by 7.7 per cent implying a COVID-19 induced loss of Rs 9.61 lakh crore in real terms...