-The Indian Express Far from reducing opacity in how politics is financed, this new vehicle merely legitimizes it. It is an open secret that political finance in India is, to put it mildly, a sordid affair. When it comes to political contributions, opacity reigns. The situation is not much better when it comes to expenditure, as candidates regularly declare laughably small amounts of campaign spending in order to give the appearance...
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Shaktikanta Das, the former secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, interviewed by Richa Mishra (The Hindu Business Line)
-The Hindu Business Line Who would know better than Shaktikanta Das, the former secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, the ‘Good, Bad, and Ugly’ side of demonetisation and GST, the two factors that disrupted the balance sheets of not only the government and corporates but also that of the common man. Das would like to call it “positive disruption” as he believes that the turbulence caused was short-term, and that...
More »Loan: Rs 41,700 Waived: Rs 7 -Arnab Ganguly
-The Telegraph Chandigarh: Farmer Balwinder Singh from Patiala had taken a loan of Rs 41,700 from a cooperative Bank. When he received his loan-waiver certificate from the Punjab government on Sunday, the amount waived was mentioned as Rs 7. On a day chief minister Amarinder Singh launched the loan-waiver scheme in Chandigarh to help distressed farmers, many across the state alleged only a fraction of their debts had been written off. While Balwinder...
More »Some red flags in the economy numbers: Agriculture is the most alarming -RN Bhaskar
-MoneyControl.com When agriculture’s GVA growth climbed from -0.2% in 2014-15, to 0.7% in 2015-16, everyone expected agriculture to continue doing well. This was confirmed by this growth rate further rising to 4.9% in 2016-17. But what happened now? So it is finally official. The fears that most people had kept suppressed – about India witnessing an economic slowdown – have been realised. The Central Statistical Office (CSO) came out last week with...
More »Are electoral bonds an elaborate ruse to protect anonymous donations? -Suchindran B N & Param Pandya
-The Economic Times blog Electoral bonds represent the latest attempt at removing black money from the electoral system. It is a financial instrument, much like a demand draft or currency note, which will conceal the identity of the donor from the intended recipient political party from everyone except the issuing Bank. These bonds can be purchased for any value, in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1,00,000, Rs 10,00,000 and Rs...
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