-The Telegraph In the long term, the only real solution to rural distress is to shift labour to more productive segments of the economy It has turned into an open season for farm loan waivers. Less than a week after assuming office, Congress governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have announced the waiver of crop loans up to two lakh rupees per farmer. The Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, has thrown down...

-The Hindu The former Chief Election Commissioner on the EVM controversy, why the Supreme Court’s verdict on criminals in politics is a missed opportunity, and electoral bonds The debate on the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) refuses to settle, with political parties continuing to voice their concerns about malfunctioning machines. Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi explains how EVMs work, why he is disappointed with the Supreme Court for refusing to...

-The Hindu Issues such as levy on warehousing, agri-project imports pose a challenge With the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) — India’s biggest reform in the tax structure — the government has succeeded in moving a step closer towards making the country a unified common market, leading the nation’s economy towards growth and sustainability. India’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector has grown consistently over the past three years, reaching over...

-NDTV Of the 13,000 wells in Indian side of Punjab, 25 per cent of them had high levels of arsenic, the study highlighted. New Delhi: The Indus Basin region covering areas of Indian as well as Pakistan side of Punjab has "serious" levels of arsenic in groundwater, along with traces of fluoride and nitrate, raising a major public-health concern, a new study Tuesday said. Of the 13,000 wells in Indian side...

-The Hindu There are substantive reasons for the questions being raised about the new GDP back series Without in any way impugning the integrity of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), most knowledgeable people are asking: if most important indicators of the Indian economy were better in 2004-2014, how is the GDP growth rate higher in estimates just released (7.4% per annum since 2014 and only 6.7% per annum in 2005-2014)? This is...