-Business Standard The six-month moratorium period comes to an end on August 31 The Reserve Bank is unlikely to extend the moratorium on repayment of bank loans beyond August 31 as an extension could impact the credit behaviour of borrowers without resolving the issues being faced by them following the outbreak of the Covid-19, sources said. The RBI had announced a moratorium on repayment of debt for six months beginning March 1, 2020...

-The India Forum Nandini Sundar teaches at Delhi University. Gowhar Fazili teaches at Ambedkar University Delhi. Academic freedom is about the right to study, teach and research a diversity of viewpoints. Yet, this right that is so crucial for the pursuit of knowledge has seen widespread attacks in colleges and universities across India. The New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 claims it is based on principles that include creativity and critical thinking, constitutional values,...

-The Hindu/PTI It says irregularities have been reported regarding changes to the data in the Doing Business 2018 and Doing Business 2020 reports. The World Bank on Thursday said it has decided to pause the publication of its Doing Business report following a number of irregularities regarding changes to data in previous reports. “A number of irregularities have been reported regarding changes to the data in the Doing Business 2018 and Doing Business...

-The Indian Express The economic slowdown, which has been underway for almost three years now, began to adversely impact GST revenue collections in August last year. While the Centre Thursday chose to pin much of the blame for the delays on GST compensation payments to the slowdown inflicted by the pandemic, the delays preceded the Covid-19 shock by almost a year – when payments due for August-September 2019 got delayed. Since then,...

-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the persistent digital divide afflicting rural India owing to poor and insufficient internet connectivity. With the Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech acknowledging the need ‘to complete’ internet connectivity to villages, there is a renewed vigour and interest in the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN)/BharatNet project. An important question to pose when translating policy to project is: when should...