Just before Dhanteras and Diwali this year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the November edition of its monthly bulletin. The latest RBI Monthly Bulletin says that the GDP has contracted by -8.6 percent in the second quarter of fiscal year 2020-21 (i.e. July-September, 2020) as compared to the gross domestic product (GDP) during the corresponding period last year. It may be noted that India’s GDP shrunk by -23.9...

-MoneyLife.in The flood havoc in Kolhapur and Sangli districts has killed 54 people and thousands of cattle, besides causing colossal loss of property, farmlands and crops.  Was it the ferocity of nature that caused such a great calamity or did human interference aggravate the situation? RTI documents reveal that tampering of the red and blue line demarcation of the Panchganga River in the Kolhapur Development Plan, due to the pressure of the...

-The Hindu The Coastal Regulation Zone notification of 2018 increases the vulnerability of coastal people to climate disasters The National Democratic Alliance government has unleashed several extremely unimaginative developmental policies that target areas that have retained some degree of ecological value to turn them into sites for industrial production. This is despite evidence of the damaging effects of such policies. The latest instance of this is the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification...

-Livemint.com Declining income, shrinking farmlands, rise in number of dependents on existing holdings add to farm woes Bengaluru: Since 2000, Karnataka has put nearly 200,000 hectares of farmland to non-agricultural use, including for industrial, residential and infrastructure projects. Besides shrinking farmlands, the number of dependents on existing land holdings have also increased considering little employment opportunities elsewhere. From 1.312 million hectares in 2000-01 (cumulative), the total land put to non-agricultural use has risen...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The proposed law to crack down on Ponzi schemes will bar Real Estate Developers that offer fixed returns till possession as well as schemes from jewellers as the government believes that they are “unregulated deposits”. The clampdown on realtors, jewellers and other deposit-seeking entities is part of the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, which was cleared by the Cabinet on Wednesday and is expected to...