'Oru Chaayakadakarante Mann ki Baat (Mind Matter of a Tea Vendor), an award-winning Malayalam documentary about the hardships of a tea seller after demonetisation, was supposed to be screened at the Kerala Club in New Delhi on Monday. The event was cancelled at the last minute, though, allegedly after Sangh parivar members threatened members of the club. According to The Telegraph, organisers were told not to screen the movie because it shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi “in bad light”. The screening was going to be followed by a discussion on the economic crisis...'
'India’s sagging economic growth has finally forced the government to relax its strict fiscal deficit targets, but even that may not guarantee a recovery. On September 20, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a reduction in the country’s effective corporate tax rate from around 35% to 25%. For companies that do not avail of any other incentive or commission, the effective tax rate would be just 22%. While India’s equity markets cheered the decision, the bond markets tanked on fears that the government may now have to borrow more to meet its expenses.
'...there is a case for autonomy [of central banks], for sure. And that autonomy is important for all institutions, and that autonomy in the central bank in India was dead, certainly, in November 2016, when demonetisation was announced. Because it was very clear at that time that this was a decision taken against the wishes of the RBI, imposed on the RBI, which then had to implement something, which it did very badly. Which it had absolutely no knowledge of, and no preparation for.
'It is ironical that the Narendra Modi government, which never tires of reminding everybody about their nationalism and patriotism, is actually following an economic policy of selling off the country’s national resources to foreign companies. It recently announced measures of easing foreign direct investment (FDI) in coal mining and associated infrastructure, contract manufacturing, single brand retail and digital media.
'Parle Products’ announcement that it may have to let go up to 10,000 employees has caused a stir as big as news of a recession in the auto sector. Demand has been falling and government policies have further exacerbated the crisis, says the company.
'...The Northern India Textile Mills Association (NITMA) – an association of textile mills located in Northern India – estimates 50 lakh job cuts owing to the economic slowdown in India. Several reports indicate that at least three lakh people have already lost their jobs in the automobile sector following a decline in the demand for cars across India. Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp and TVS Group companies Sundaram-Clayton Limited and Lucas TVS have already halted their production... A glimpse at the advertisements issued by NITMA makes it clear where the crisis lies.
'India was until recently the fastest-growing major economy in the world, clocking annual rates of 7% or more and sparking predictions that it would soon overtake the likes of the U.K. and Germany. Now it looks like that rapid pace may have been overstated. An academic paper by a former chief economic adviser to Prime Minister Narendra Modi estimates annual growth averaged closer to 4.5% a year in the fiscal years from 2011-12 through 2016-17, and says recent changes to the way gross domestic product is measured are problematic.
'When finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech omitted numbers relating to the government’s overall revenue and expenditure, for both the previous and current years, this was widely commented on. After all, these numbers are the reason for having a Budget speech in the first place – to provide parliament and the general public a quick overview of the state of the Central government’s finances.
'It is now official that the country has indeed been witnessing jobless growth. Months after rejecting the claim by a leaked report that India's unemployment rate had touched a 45-year high, the government admitted the same on Friday with the latest data showing that joblessness had indeed touched 6.1 per cent in the 12-month period from July 2017 to June 2018. The government had earlier brushed aside a leaked official report on the country's poor job scenario and maintained that the unemployment data was yet to be finalised...'
'Controversy over the credibility of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) series is escalating after a recent National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) study found that the companies’ data from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) used for computing GDP included shell companies.
