-Scroll.in The prime minister’s Independence Day speech was more of a laundry list of achievements, with few new announcements. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on Tuesday was not only his shortest Independence Day address so far, it also had little by way of major announcements. Aside from a few one-liners calling for Indians to change their attitudes and for a different approach to Kashmir, Modi’s annual speech from the Red Fort...

-Scroll.in The Economic Survey stated that long term benefits of the exercise are yet to materialise. It is now over nine months since the government suddenly withdraw 86% of India’s currency in November but India’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian remains unsure if this note ban or demonetisation actually helped any sector of the Indian economy, the latest volume of Economic Survey tabled in Parliament on Friday suggests. The Chief Economic Advisor...

-The Hindu Given the recent policy changes, the CEA has done right to flag mid-year concerns Five months after the Economic Survey 2016-17 was released, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian has presented the second volume of the annual economic review-cum-prognosticatory report. With the intervening period having provided a wealth of data points and policy Developments, including the momentous roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax, there was a clear need to update...

-The Indian Express The failure of populist rural credit schemes stems primarily from poor understanding of farm indebtedness in the first place. From the 1970s, a lot of private investment in tube-well irrigation, farm mechanisation and allied agricultural activities took place with bank credit support. After the establishment of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in 1982, institutional credit flows not only accelerated, but also exhibited diversification to fund livestock...

-The Hindu A new regulatory regime for groundwater, that provides for equitable use, is urgently needed The water crisis India faces is of such a magnitude that urgent measures are necessary to address it. Yet, while the crisis is often discussed, law and policy measures to address it remain insufficient. This is partly due to the fact that the primary source of domestic water and irrigation is groundwater but the media and...