-The Telegraph The Central Statistics Office reported today that economic growth sank to a three-year low at 5.7 per cent, striking at the core of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of achchhe din. The sharp slowdown is a result of the two biggest disruptive measures taken by the Modi government: demonetisation and the goods and services tax. The double whammy has badly crimped factory output and squeezed the services sector. The GDP growth...

-Livemint.com State’s response to organised violence in India often hinges on a political cost-benefit analysis Days before the verdict in rape case against Dera Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, his supporters started gathering in Panchkula. A lot of violence could have been prevented by not letting them come there. Why did the government allow this? The Dera is hardly a benign spiritual organisation. It holds significant political clout and openly declares support...

-The Indian Express A scrutiny of RBI’s earlier provisional disclosures and the government’s structured public remarks reveal a pattern: aware that much of the money would return, the government and the political establishment kept shifting the goalposts. New Delhi: “Tab (previous UPA) aawaz uthti thi ki kitna gaya, ab aawaz uth rahi hai ki kitna laye. Isse bada jeevan ka santosh kya ho sakta hai…Yahi toh sahi kadam hai…Woh zamana tha tab...

-Down to Earth In a major digression from the current discourse on GM crops, the report claimed that the farmers in India have “enthusiastically embraced” GM seeds For the first time since the five-year PLAns were scrapped, the NITI Aayog presented the three-year action PLAn last week. The report, which draws on recommendations made by the Task Force on Agricultural Development and a group of secretaries appointed by PM Modi at...

-The Indian Express Demonetisation: The “pipeline” demonetised collections, according to these officials, include banned notes lying with citizens in Nepal as deliberations between the RBI and the Nepal Rashtra Bank (NRB) for the exchange of such notes did not fructify. New Delhi: On a day when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the data for collected demonetised currency, top RBI officials told The Indian Express that the figure could creep closer...