-Livemint.com A failure to protect incomes could widen the gap between have-nots and haves and thus hurt growth When the facts change, I change my mind," John Maynard Keynes is believed to have said almost a century ago. Responding to the economic after-shocks of the covid pandemic, governments and central banks have been living by this maxim. In the UK and US, supposedly fiscally conservative governments have spent with abandon to prop...

-Livemint.com Direct handouts and fiscal rather than monetary action could help tide over the current shock and its potential after waves The Covid-19 pandemic is, above all, a human tragedy. The impact on the economy is at best second in the list of public policy concerns right now. Governments across the world have done well to sacrifice economic activity in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus. However, the economic...

-Hindustan Times The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) said it will support the agitation being planned by United Front of Banking Unions against the government’s decision to merge ten banks. Thiruvananthapuram: The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), labour wing of the RSS on Saturday criticised the bank merger plan announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying it was done without any study and it will only protect interests of corporate houses. “No serious...

-The Economic Times Minutes after taking oath on Monday as the new Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Kamal Nath sanctioned the waiver of farm loans in the state, as promised in the Congress election manifesto. Ostensibly, this is to relieve economic distress for farmers. But Nath himself was on record last week saying, “[Farmer distress] is why there are so many suicides.” Thus, the lightning waiver. Before anything else, let’s get the facts...

-PTI Says 7% growth not enough; centralisation of power a problem. Demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) are the two major headwinds that held back India’s economic growth last year, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has said, asserting that the current 7% growth rate is not enough to meet the country’s needs. Addressing an audience at the University of California in Berkeley on Friday, Rajan said for four years — 2012...