-Livemint.com While CSO’s GDP growth estimates will be a disappointment, it will very likely be explained away soon as the market tries to find new and innovative reasons to extend the rally For a few quarters, take all year-on-year (y-o-y) growth figures about the Indian economy with a pinch of salt. That’s because they will now be boosted due to the favourable effect of a low base. Since demonetisation and the introduction...

-The Indian Express Pesticide Management Bill should address the anomalies that prevent state governments from booking large pesticide companies. “Until lions have their own historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter,” goes an old African proverb, which is also apt to describe the state of the world’s farmers. Farmers are like the hunted lions who need their side of the story told and their sacrifices, agony, courage and fears...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's largest association of doctors today called for a 12-hour nationwide shutdown of outpatient and routine services on Tuesday to protest against a bill that proposes a new regulatory structure to replace the corruption-tainted Medical Council of India. The Indian Medical Association, seeking to intensify its opposition to the National Medical Commission 2017 bill tabled by the Union health ministry in Parliament on Friday, has asked doctors to...

-The Hindu * What’s the problem? The year 2017 was marked by several farmers’ protests nationwide, with a few turning violent. Last month, in New Delhi, 184 farmer groups came together from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Telangana to take part in a ‘protest walk.’ The protest once again highlighted the plight of farmers and the extent of agrarian distress. The agriculture sector is characterised by instability in incomes...

-PTI AHMEDABAD: In a relief to parents of children studying in private schools, the Gujarat High Court today said the state government's law to regulate fees was constitutionally valid. Rejecting around 40 petitions opposing it, a division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi upheld the Gujarat Self Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017. The court ruled that state legislature is competent and has the authority to...