-Business Today Priyanka Kishore, Lead Asia Economist at Oxford Economics tells Business Today why India's GDP may well not be 7 per cent. Excerpts from an interview. * What were the reasons that prompted you to relook at India's growth numbers? India announced a revamped GDP series in early 2015, based on the requirements of the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA). The new method made substantial changes to both the estimation and...

-The Indian Express Farm incomes may not revive despite good monsoon. There are new challenges for policymakers. India’s per capita calorie demand has been falling for at least the last 30 years. Most people do a double-take when they hear that. One can’t debate the fact much: National Sample Surveys every five to seven years have documented this. What we can debate are the reasons behind this: In their 2009 paper Angus...

-Frontline Medecins Sans Frontieres warns that the free or regional trade agreements that are being negotiated, which seek to strengthen current patent regimes, are a potential threat to the developing world’s access to life-saving drugs, which it sources mostly from India. WHEN NELSON MANDELA’S GOVERNMENT passed the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act in 1997 to make medicines more accessible to the poor, 39 big pharmaceutical companies filed law suits in...

-Business Standard Recent trends indicate any such moderation would not be across the board or without riders: Experts New Delhi: Contrary to some perceptions, consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation might not ease sharply after kharif crops arrive in the markets. On the other hand, wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation could see a rise, due to an increase in prices of commodities and metals. CPI inflation rose to 6.07 per cent in July, highest since...

-The Hindu Mihir Shah on the Importance of an integrated policy for groundwater and surface water Mihir Shah, water policy expert, member of the erstwhile Planning Commission and in recent months head of several committees tasked with reforming India’s water laws, says existing institutions are inadequate to address our water needs. Which is why, he says in an e-mail interview, India needs an overarching water commission. Excerpts: * The proposed National Water Commission...