-The Hindu What happened? On June 1, farmers in Maharashtra went on strike for the first time ever. Their agitation saw violence, and angry farmers spilling milk and throwing vegetables on the road; at one point the strike expanded into a bandh call, where agitators threatened to stop supply to urban markets. This apparently leaderless agitation grabbed the attention of both the government and the urban population, quite ignorant of conditions in...

-The Hindu A big push on private investment is needed. But social harmony is also a prerequisite for faster growth The National Income numbers for 2016-17 have been released. What do they convey? What do they hold for the immediate future? Briefly, this is the picture. Recent revisions in the Index of Industrial Production and Wholesale Price Index do not alter the annual growth rates for the recent years. The differences are in...

-The Economic Times blog Finance minister Arun Jaitley was correct when he stated in April that constitutional constraints do not empower his government to tax agricultural income, implying that he is not constrained from amending the Income-Tax Act. B R Ambedkar, in framing the Constitution, was vehemently critical of British land revenue system, the foundation for which was laid during the Mughal period, and strengthened by the East India Company, which...

-Livemint.com Bank loans to rural India were the most affected, but other parts of the country also saw a deceleration in credit growth, RBI data shows It is, of course, well known that the growth of bank credit slowed in the second half of 2016-17 due to demonetisation. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data shows that as on 30 September 2016, the annual rate of growth of bank credit was 12.1%. That...

-The Indian Express The Delhi government’s decision to hike minimum wages by almost 40% gave hope to thousands struggling to make ends meet. But two months later, little has changed on the ground — be it for the saleswoman supporting her family, or the factory worker doing overtime. Sarah Hafeez investigates. Vinay, a 32-year-old bus driver, was both surprised and thrilled to hear that his colleague, a conductor hired by a...