In The Media ⁽⁴⁰⁰⁾

Read full article Abstract: The problem is likely to be less severe than UN statistics indicate, given faulty yardsticksIf asked to name the state with the lowest incidence of child malnutrition in India, readers will overwhelmingly pick one of Kerala, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab or West Bengal. But they will all be wrong by a wide margin: none of these states appears among even the top five performers. According to the recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India,Arunachal Pradeshwalks away with the top prize. Based on 2010-11 data, Nagaland,Sikkim, Manipur and Mizoram, in that order, follow on the top five list. Maharashtra ranks a close sixth but the next four slots again go to northern and northeastern states —Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Jammu & Kashmir and Assam. Only then do Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab find a place on the list (caveat: I exclude Madhya Pradesh due to possible data inconstancies).

According to the advance estimate that was released by the Central Statistical Office sometime back, GDP growth during the second half of 2012-13 is expected to be just 4.6%.Read full article News on the Indian economy has been worse than even what the pessimists had predicted. According to the advance estimate that was released by the Central Statistical Office sometime back, GDP growth during the second half of 2012-13 is expected to be just 4.6%. This is one of the worst growth performances of the Indian economy in the post-reform era. The UPA had inherited a robust economy with the GDP growing at 8.5% in 2003-04. Absent a miracle, it will now bequeath its successor government an economy at its weakest in many years. This debacle in growth performance has brought India sceptics back to surface.

Read full article Abstract: The three-year compliance period for the Right to Education (RTE) Act is just over. What has the Act accomplished? Sadly, not very much that is positive. A key provision in the law abolishes board examinations and grants automatic promotion to each child to the next grade at the end of the academic year. It also requires the award of a diploma to all at the end of eight years regardless of the knowledge and skills acquired. It is anybody's guess what value such a diploma will command in the marketplace.

Read full article Abstract: Import barriers and capital inflows will not make the current account deficit go away India's current account deficit (CAD) has ballooned, reaching 4.6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011-12. While the latest Economic Survey advises cutting gold and oil imports, the budget speech emphatically points to larger capital inflows as the solution. Both the survey and the speech couldn't be more wrong. Restricting gold or oil imports will not change the total imports or the CAD. And bringing more foreign capital will increase , not reduce the latter.

Sonia Gandhi ensured that the PM pushed the bailout through Cabinet to avoid trouble for her own and son Rahul’s election from UP in 2014. Read full article My last visit to New Delhi coincided with the elections in Gujarat. While trying to catch up with television in my hotel room, I noticed a campaign commercial. It opened with a song whose opening line translates as, “The nation seeks account of the misery inflicted over the last 10 years.” Although the reference to 10 instead of eight years should have served as a clue, my immediate reaction was to wonder why the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was running his election campaign against the Congress in Delhi. As the commercial progressed, I realised my mistake: It was being run on behalf of the Congress with Modi as the target. But that begged the question why the Congress was challenging Modi in Delhi even before he had emerged as the leader of his party? And wasn’t this a case of the pot calling the kettle black since one could equally take the…