-The Economic Times HYDERABAD: Delayed and inadequate monsoon across several cotton growing Indian states has dented sowing and hit hybrid seeds sales hard and producers have seen nearly a fifth of seed returns from their distributors, double that of last year. Normal returns from seed dealers hover at around 10% a year, adding to the woes of Indian hybrid seed firms that are currently in a prolonged wrangle with the global seed...

-Business Standard Conventional subsidy bill of Rs 2.44 lakh crore, or 1.7 per cent of GDP, in 2015-16 If lower tax rate is equivalent to subsidising, the National Democratic Alliance government is clearly targeting the 'well-off' segment of the population. Unlike the previous years, the Economic Survey 2015-16 has dealt with the issue of subsidy by giving only a box on petroleum subsidies, while devoting a chapter with nine-and-a-half pages to 'Bounties...

-The Hindu The formal signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) by the 12 member-countries of the mega-regional free trade agreement is a milestone for international trade and, by extension, the global economy. With worldwide trade having slowed sharply since the 2008 financial crisis and now faced with headwinds from China’s slowdown, the deal, yet to be ratified, could provide a much-needed fillip to growth. As the World Bank noted in a...

-CaravanMagazine.in Thomas Piketty's comments on inequality allude to the same structures that surround Rohith Vemula's tragic death. On 21 January 2016, addressing a packed hall of students and scholars at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, the French economist Thomas Piketty gave a talk in which he discussed the history of taxation, inequality and capital in the twenty-first century. Superficially, Piketty’s discourse appears to be entirely distinct from another recent discourse on inequality—that...

-The Hindu The Modi government’s policy is choking domestic demand at a time when global demand is also weak. This is hardly a recipe for double-digit growth. The title seems provocative. After all, for the last several months, we have all heard that India is now the fastest growing large economy in the world. The Finance Minister keeps assuring us that the country’s economic revival is on a firm footing and that...