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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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Honest Statistics Peg Lower GDP Growth

By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2020-01-10 10:51:04

For the first time after many years, the National Statistics Office (NSO) has presented an authentic report of the state of the economy and pared down the advance growth estimates for FY 2019-20. The government needs to be complimented for this. Window dressing of economic figures is not good for the economy as it makes investors and rating agencies lose confidence in the government and policy-making goes haywire.

The NSO has said that the GPD is expected to grow at only 5% for the full year (in line with the estimate presented by the RBI earlier). The nominal GDP growth is now pegged at just 7.5%, down from the 11-12% estimated in the last Union budget. This means that the entire fiscal math of the budget is going to turn on its head as a gap of 3.5-4.5% is huge. This also means that the government will be hard-pressed to adhere to fiscal deficit norms this year.

If the rest of the report presents a bleak picture it is in line with the ground reality. Economic activity is down all over India and the figures suggest that the recovery process will be protracted. Manufacturing is expected to grow at 2%, agriculture at 2.8% and construction at only 3.2%. Investments are flat and will grow at a mere 1% compared to 10% last year, while trade as a percentage of the GDP will fall to 39.6% against 43.3% last year. Gross Value Added (GVA) will fall to 4.9%, down from the 6.9% achieved last year.

These honest figures, though depressing for the economy, will gladden the hearts of those who abhor window dressing of statistics. The government has realized that actual figures need to be presented for policy-making and investment purposes. It had earlier set up a Standing Committee on Economic Statistics (SCES), to be headed by the former chief statistician of India, Pronab Sen. The SCES has at least three other economists - CP Chandrasekhar, Hema Swaminathan and Jeemol Unni - who had earlier criticized the government for alleged "political interference" in the working of the official statistical machinery and "the tendency to suppress uncomfortable data". Setting up the SCES and the NSO report are welcome moves to set things in motion to present genuine data before investors, think tanks and policymakers.

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