-Livemint.com How India can put in place policy reforms to raise GDP growth without creating macroeconomic instability Mumbai: The second Narendra Modi government has begun its innings in the midst of a sharp economic slowdown. Economic expansion in the fourth quarter of the previous financial year was at the lowest level in five years—and 2.2 percentage points lower than growth in the first quarter of that year. The recent loss in economic...

-The Hindu Major drop seen in open defecation India has made great gains in providing basic sanitation facilities since the start of the millennium, accounting for almost two thirds of the 650 million people globally who stopped practising open defecation between 2000 and 2017. However, a monitoring report by UN organisations released on Tuesday also shows that there has been absolutely no growth in the population with access to piped water facilities over...

-Livemint.com To keep up with the pressure of making headline fiscal deficit numbers look good, the government has increasingly resorted to off-budget financing for revenue as well as capital spending As with every other Union budget in the country, all eyes will focus on the fiscal deficit number that India’s new finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman presents on 5 July in her maiden budget speech. But for many investors and analysts, how that...

-Hindustan Times The shooting incidents — between May 17 and June 15 — that HT analysed resulted in 16 deaths and left at least 22 people injured New Delhi: At least 220 bullets have been fired on Delhi’s streets in 43 incidents of shooting reported in the Capital over the last 30 days, according to HT’s analysis of all such incidents at a time when senior police officers are expressing concern about...

-Down to Earth A delay in arrival of the monsoon, especially in western India, will worsen the water woes even further There is a downward trend in water levels in at least 71 of 91 reservoirs across India according to data released by the Central Water Commission (CWC) on June 13. The situation is particularly grim in the north-western region — in Gujarat and Maharashtra — and in the southern states of Kerala...