-PTI Ahmedabad: Torrential rains pounded parts of Gujarat today, leading to a deluge-like situation at several places, even as the state’s disaster management authority has been put on alert to tackle any emergency situation. Tankara gauged a massive 280 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours. Teams of the disaster management department with the help of National Disaster Response Force personnel rescued around 14 people stranded in floodwaters in the district. “Tankara...

-The Hindu It’s complex than elsewhere both in terms of number of rates and jurisdictions The form of Goods and Services Tax being implemented from July 1 is uniquely Indian, according to former Planning Commission member and former Chairman of the National Statistical Commission Pronab Sen. In an interview to The Hindu, he says the indirect tax regime will make it easier to start a new company, but increases complexity for those...

-The Hindu GST will subsume almost all cesses levied at the moment One of the key sticking points thwarting consensus in the Goods and Services Council over the course of its meetings in 2016 was the compensation the Centre would have to pay States for any losses they might incur due to the implementation of the new indirect tax regime. What was the issue? The GST is a destination-based tax, and as such is...

-The Hindu Business Line High inputs costs, low price for produce and water scarcity are major challenges Mumbai: Despite the Rs. 34,000 crore farm-loan waiver in Maharashtra, farmers’ lives are unlikely to change for the better as they will continue to be up against familiar problems such as high input costs, low prices for their produce, and scant water availability, say farm sector experts. They are of the opinion that the core issues...

-IndiaSpend.org   The failing economics of such farms–agricultural households in the south are most indebted–are exacerbated by additional loans that families take to meet health issues, leaving them with diminished ability to invest in farming. Nearly 70% of India’s 90 million agricultural households spend more than they earn on average each month, pushing them towards debt, which is now the primary reason in more than half of all suicides by farmers nationwide,...