-The Hindu “Economic conditions continued to improve through November on the back of the uptick in agriculture and manufacturing,” RBI officials say in an article in the central bank’s monthly bulletin. There is now more evidence to show that the Indian economy “is pulling out of COVID-19’s deep abyss and is reflating” at a pace that beats most predictions, RBI officials, including Deputy Governor Michael Patra, said in an article in the...

-The Hindu Business Line The food articles’ high weight and their price volatility have reduced the efficacy of the central bank’s policy actions The flexible inflation targeting framework adopted by RBI in 2016 is considered a significant economic reform in India post 2000. Under this framework, maintaining a 4 per cent CPI headline inflation gets the highest priority in the hierarchy of monetary policy objectives. This rule based policy making renders monetary...

-The Indian Express Traditional redistribution, which aims to deliver on intangibles like health and education, has ceded to a distinctive ‘New Welfarism’, where Centre is demonstrably providing tangible essentials to citizens The recently released fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) provides reliable and independent evidence to assess micro-development performance under this government. The survey covers many dimensions of health, nutrition, and the overall quality of lives. Here we focus...

-The Indian Express If India’s overwhelming goal is to become a $5 trillion economy within a few years, there is no reason to pay attention to children. But if it is development in the full sense of the term, then child development is paramount. Leaving aside two or three countries like Niger and Yemen, India has the highest proportion of underweight children in the world: a full 36 per cent according to...

-The New Indian Express The ongoing standoff between the Centre and farm bodies, if not resolved soon, may impinge on the economy, which is already struggling to get on a growth trajectory amid the COVID-19 pandemic. NEW DELHI: The week-long farmers’ agitation that has caused supply chain and logistics disruption in several parts of the country is resulting in a daily loss of Rs 3,000-3500 crore, according to estimates from Assocham. ​The ongoing...