-TheConversation.com/TheWire.in With the cost-of-living crisis now at the top of the public’s agenda in many developed countries, the setting of interest rates has ceased to be just a technical matter and has instead become highly political. Where is the global economy heading in 2023? After all the challenges of last year, it’s a question we ask with trepidation. Just as the economy was dealing with the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,...

-Deccan Chronicle HYDERABAD: In a move that is likely to trigger a fresh controversy between the BRS government and the Centre, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has issued directions to its officials in Telangana state to accept only fortified raw rice for public distribution (PDS) starting on January 9. The FCI's circular may spark a verbal spat between the Telangana government and the Centre because some rice mills throughout the state...

-Reuters/ Business Today The government aims to cut spending on food and fertiliser subsidies to Rs 3.7 lakh crore ($44.6 billion) in the fiscal year from April, down 26% from this year, two government officials said, to rein in a fiscal deficit that ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Food and fertiliser subsidies alone account for about one-eighth of total budget spending of Rs 39.45 lakh crore this fiscal year, but reductions...

-Newslaundry The Government of India has removed exemptions for journalistic work from data protection obligations in the fourth iteration of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022. If this iteration is passed as law a story containing personal data may result in journalists having to prove to a data protection board that their story was in the public interest, Newslaundry reported. The three previous versions - in 2018, 2019 and 2021...

Editorial team, Carbon Copy  Ongoing shifts in rainfall and temperature caused by climate change are likely to increase the debt burden faced by rural households, particularly of marginalised groups in dry areas, an editorial in Carbon Copy magazine said. The piece cited a study in the journal Climate Change that argues that changes in climate, along with existing socio-economic differences - caste and landholding in particular — will deepen the size...