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The newly constituted Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at its first meeting has announced a repo rate cut, from 6.5 to 6.25 per cent, to facilitate revival of credit to productive sectors with improving growth prospects post a normal monsoon.

The Modi Government looks set to improve upon its mixed record in growth and reform thus far, as the economy enters the crucial second half of fiscal 2017, gaining from a good monsoon and outcomes awaited from a set of effective policy actions taken.

For the Pakistan army, India’s “surgical strikes” on the jehadi camps across the Line of Control (LoC) have proved its longstanding contention about an existential threat from India.

A suo moto Public Interest litigation taking cognizance of the accidents caused by the vertical gap between the floor of the coach and the platform surface by the Bombay High Court in January 2014, forced the Indian Railways to raise the requisite heights of all the sub-urban services platforms on Central and Western Railways for a better safety of commuters in Mumbai. According to official information, there are 273 platforms on Central Railway and 145 platforms on Western Railway in Mumbai. In the first phase, as against the target fixed by the Bombay High Court for completion of 83 platforms on Central Railway and 145 platforms on Western Railway to be raised by May 2016, the height of only 50.87 per cent of platforms has been raised, which goes against the directions of the High Court, showing inability of the two zonal railways to implement.

BHOPAL: Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, visited London with the objective to woo British industrialists to invest in India. A few days back he undertook extensive visit of the U.S.A. According to a government spokesman, during his London visit among others he met also the liquor barons in order to explore the possibility of setting up their liquor manufacturing units in Madhya Pradesh.

If the union government’s direct tax collection showed a 24 per cent jump and indirect tax by 30 per cent in just first four months of the current fiscal, which normally represents the lean season of the economy, the national exchequer should be more than pleased. The huge jump in tax collection coupled with the government’s continuous push for higher non-tax revenues should have made the management of public finances extremely comfortable. In addition, the government provided a very rosy picture of unearthing large domestic black money through an attractive ‘voluntary disclosure’ scheme valid till September 30 under which it will have an additional 45 per cent tax collected on ‘disclosed’ assets, thereto held ‘unaccounted’ by our good citizens. However, the scheme result fell much short of the government expectation. The income declaration scheme 2016 unearthed only a gross of Rs. 65,250 crore of undisclosed income and assets, filed under 64,275 declarations till the midnight of September 30, making it just a little over a crore per declaration. Even then, the centre will collect an additional tax of nearly Rs. 30,000 crore on the amount of ‘concealed wealth’ voluntarily declared.

Questions can be raised about India’s decision to boycott the SAARC summit scheduled at Islamabad in November this year. This is the first time that India has cancelled participation in regional group summit because of actions that it blames on Pakistan. The summit is supposed to discuss a large number of issues of interest to the South Asian region and it was just incidental that this time, the summit will be held in Islamabad. The decision on cancelling India’s participation was taken even before the discussions started about steps on reviewing MFN status for Pakistan following Uri attack.

The Congress Government in Karnataka arrived at its moment of truth on October 1 - whether to abide by the Supreme Court's 'last chance' for it to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu for six days (October 1-6) or 'face the wrath of law'.

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India has urged the Indian Government to continue with the diplomatic and political moves to defuse tension and to open all possible channels to initiate dialogue with Pakistan to stop cross border terrorism.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Political mercury has soared with the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) deciding to step up the agitation over the hike in fee in self-financing private medical colleges.