-The Telegraph Economist who served as finance minister dies at 90 Calcutta: Former Bengal finance minister Ashok Mitra, who also served as the chief economic adviser to the Indian government, passed away in a city nursing home on Tuesday morning. The Marxist economist was 90 and had been suffering from age-related complications. His wife Gouri had died 10 years ago. An economist by training - with a PhD under Nobel laureate economist Jan Tinbergen -...

-India Water Portal The editor of a new book that lays out alternative futures for India discusses India, democracy and development with a noted journalist. Alternative Futures: India Unshackled is a new book that dares to imagine what India could be. Published by Authors Upfront, 35 author-activists, researchers and thinkers have drawn upon their experiences to write on alternative political, ecological, economic and sociocultural scenarios that will benefit India in its...

-The Hindu NITI Aayog CEO says he did not say they were dragging down India’s growth Facing criticism over his comment that eastern States such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the BJP is in power, are keeping India backward, Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog, on Tuesday issued a clarification on Twitter. “These States are backward on human development indicators because of legacy issues. This government’s...

-TheWire.in Our progress in conserving natural heritage, environmental stability and ecosystem services is measured solely through the lens of tree cover. It shouldn't. India’s non-forest ecosystems are biting the dust in the absence of a holistic conservation policy. In place of the latter, we have a new National Forest Policy that outlines the use of forests in legally binding terms. First drafted by the British to maximise timber production, this policy was revised...

-The Telegraph Mumbai: Research by the State Bank of India suggests currency notes of higher denominations, especially Rs 2000 notes, are "not getting adequately circulated in the economy" and the tendency to hoard cash may be having a domino effect. An SBI research report tries to provide a theoretical basis for the sudden evaporation of cash in some states by linking the phenomenon to the sharp decline in "income velocity" in the...