-The Times of India NEW DELHI: As on September 30, 2017, more than Rs 1.1 lakh crore was owed to banks by people or companies characterised as “wilful defaulters”, that is those who are unwilling to pay despite having the capacity to do so. TOI analysed more than 9,000 such accounts for which banks have filed lawsuits for recovery and found that the top 11 Debtor groups, each with dues of...

-The Hindu UDAY scheme: Tamil Nadu ranked lowest on performance power distribution companies Chennai:  UDAY review finds little progress made in smart metering. Tamil Nadu has been ranked lowest in terms of State distribution companies’ quarterly performance as of December 2017, post joining the Centre’s Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY). The State had joined the scheme over a year ago. The scheme, covering 31 States and Union Territories, emphasises both financial turnaround and...

-The New Indian Express HYDERABAD: Seeking a legal right status to their two demands- one that of assured remunerative prices for agricultural produce and second, that of farmers’ freedom from Debts, members of 190 farmers’ organisation, including 25 from Telangana, met in the city on Thursday to take the discourse and struggle forward. The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee has been leading a nationwide farmers’ movement on these two demands...

-The Indian Express While Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara seeks to recover from the recent disastrous bypoll where the BJP lost two Lok Sabha seats and an assembly seat to the Congress, MP’s three-time CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan aims to mitigate three-time anti-incumbency. From crop loan and land revenue waivers to bonus payments and free crop storage, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh announced a slew of sops Monday targeting farmers and rural voters...

-The Hindu The slowdown in private investments is visible chiefly in the informal sector, not the corporate sector It is now well recognised that there is an investment slowdown in India, which is delaying a full-blooded recovery in the economy. Private investments, the principle engine of growth, are out of steam. The fall is so severe that it has more than offset the government’s macroeconomic stimulus of increased public investments. The slowdown started...