-The Hindu Uneven inflation and sluggish growth present serious dilemmas for policymakers Policymakers face a tricky dilemma as prices in the economy continue to rise even as economic growth has plummeted to well under 5%. Food inflation, now in double-digits, has caused significant pain. The International Monetary Fund on December 23 called for “urgent” policy measures to reverse the current slowdown that has weighed down global economic growth. The warning is timely...

-The Hindu Delays in local body polls can be avoided with sterner fixing of accountability It’s been more than two decades since the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments were passed by Parliament, which accorded constitutional status to local administration bodies across India. Yet, the Tamil Nadu Government delayed holding rural local body elections, due in 2016, by three years. This unconstitutional delay started when the Madras High Court cancelled the notification put...

-The Indian Express The Central Government had on December 1 notified amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016, in which it had brought a corporate debtor’s personal guarantor under the purview of the Code. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), as well as the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), is in favour of disallowing individuals who have been declared insolvent, from holding any public office or being the...

-Hindustan Times Indian democracy is robust. The balance is good for the polity The Jharkhand election, in which a coalition of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has succeeded in dislodging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government, is a reflection of a broader pattern in national politics. For one, it shows, yet again, that the BJP is vulnerable at the state level — and Narendra Modi’s popularity at the...

-The Indian Express In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Shah had raised the pitch in West Bengal, where the BJP sought to use the “illegal immigrant” issue as a major poll plank to consolidate the Hindu votes against the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC Government in the state. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that there has been no discussion on a National Register of Citizens (NRC) since the time...