-The Hindu Attention needs to be paid to both cyclical and structural dimensions of India’s present economic slowdown India’s current economic slowdown is due to a combination of two underlying trends. First, there is the short-run cyclical slowdown exhibited by a number of high-frequency indicators, reflecting a significant fall in demand, especially for sectors such as automobiles, consumer durables and housing. Second, there is the more serious long-term fall in investment and savings...

-Livemint.com Bihar, UP and Odisha account for the bulk of highly-stressed district courts, shows an analysis based on parameters including pendency rate, infra deficit It is often said that in court cases in India, the process itself is the punishment. However, how torturous and long-drawn this process can be varies dramatically across the courts of the country, a Mint analysis of district-wise court data suggests. The analysis shows that Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (UP)...

-PTI There are a little over 100 telephone exchanges in the region. Landline services in 17 exchanges of the Kashmir Valley were restored on Saturday, officials said. Seventeen out of a little over 100 telephone exchanges were made operational. These exchanges are mainly in Civil Lines area, Cantonment area, airport of SRInagar district. The landline services have been restored in Budgam, Sonamarg and Manigam areas of central Kashmir. In north Kashmir, the services have...

-Down to Earth The National Democratic Alliance government's move is an assault on the independence of information commissioners, writes former Central Information Commissioner M SRIdhar Acharyulu Alas! I thought the Narendra Modi government is strong enough after its re-election. But now it is scared of the Right to Information (RTI) and the Chief Information Commission (CIC), as if they are monsters who can harm the power of the powerful rulers. The Information Commissioner...

-Down to Earth The amendment to the RTI Act does not deserve the assent of the President, writes former Central Information Commissioner M SRIdhar Acharyulu in the second of this two-part series The Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions told the House that Parliament's competence to enact a law to give effect to the citizens' right to obtain information is located in Entry 97 of the Union List...