Daily Hindu Editorials

👉Q4 GDP growth is up, but with inflation risks. RBI will have to take a call on raising rates👈 Official data showing the GDP expanding at the fastest pace in seven quarters in the three months ended March 31, a brisk 7.7% at that, is reason for cheer. Given that this has been propelled largely by increases in manufacturing and construction activity is a basis for optimism given that the former contributes almost a fifth of quarterly gross value added (GVA) and the latter about 8%. The rebound in construction is all the more heartening since it is both a creator of direct and indirect jobs and a multiplier of overall output. In the fourth quarter, construction is estimated to have posted a robust 11.5% growth, almost a doubling in pace from the 6.6% in the third quarter, and compares favourably with the contraction of 3.9% seen in the demonetisation-hit year-earlier period. Two key groupings of services that together contributed more than 38% of fourth-quarter GVA — the first comp...

👉Finally, Italy has a government, and an edgy dialogue with the EU may be on the cards👈 The political whirlwind that has swept Italy looks to be dissipating, at least for now. Giuseppe Conte, a little-known academic with an embellished resume, has been sworn in as Prime Minister, after weeks of wrangling between President Sergio Mattarella and a coalition with a slim parliamentary majority. The two-party combine, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) led by Luigi Di Maio and the far-right League headed by the rabble-rousing, anti-migrant Matteo Salvini, disbanded plans to form a government after Mr. Mattarella exercised his powers to block the appointment of Eurosceptic Paolo Savona as Finance Minister. The President then decided to order fresh elections and appoint an ex-IMF official as interim Prime Minister, a decision that, if implemented, could have made a bad situation worse. The Eurosceptic coalition partners wasted no time in using the President’s actions as a r...

👉The Awami League government’s success in turning around the economy and health care must not be overlooked👈 Bangladesh, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Uganda are the “new” autocracies, according to Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation. In its “Transformation Index 2018 (BTI)”, it has rated 58 out of 129 developing nations as autocracies. On Bangladesh, the report says, “Due to the worsened quality of elections, the formerly fifth largest democracy is classified as an autocracy again. These developments are worrying for citizens because corruption, social exclusion and barriers to fair economic competition continue to be more prevalent in autocracies.” The BTI has, since 2006, been measuring quality of democracy, market economy and governance in 129 developing and transformation countries. Expectedly, in Bangladesh, while the ruling Awami League Party has rejected the study as baseless and claimed the country to be a “100 percent democracy”, the main opposition Bangladesh Nat...

No bids for Air India stake sale ( Eco) The government’s effort to privatize Air India came to an abrupt halt as it received zero bids from potential players until Thursday, the last day to submit expression of interest in the national carrier. The government will now revise some of the key terms of its stake sale. Details:   The government had aimed at completing the transaction by the end of the calendar year, which it is set to miss. The group of ministers, or the Air India Specific Alternate Mechanism, constituted to prepare a strategy for disinvestment of the national carrier is expected to meet within a couple of weeks to chalk out the future course of action. This is being done because no response has been received for the Expression of Interest floated for the strategic disinvestment of Air India. In March, the government made public the broad contours of Air India’s disinvestment and invited bids. It proposed to sell 76% of Air India along with low-cost subsi...

💥 Daily Word Bytes - 2  from editorial  -Guarding the peso: Argentina's economic crisis 💥 credentials (noun) – achievement, record, quality/experience. Hindu Editorial usage  :  President Macri’s reformist credentials are on the line as Argentina faces economic crisis on the line (phrase) – at risk, in danger, endangered. Hindu Editorial usage  :  President Macri’s reformist credentials are on the line as Argentina faces economic crisis weather (verb) – survive, come through, outlive (a difficulty). Hindu Editorial usage  :   Argentina is not alone among major emerging economies in trying to weather the current run on currencies due to the rallying U.S. dollar and rising interest rates. run (noun) – demand for, rush for, sudden request for. Hindu Editorial usage  :   Argentina is not alone among major emerging economies in trying to weather the current run on currencies due to the rallying U.S. dollar and rising interes...

💥 Daily Word Bytes - 1  from editorial  -Polls and polarisation 💥 polarisation (noun) – separation of two contrasting groups (based on different opinions/beliefs). Hindu Editorial usage  :  Polls and polarisation evoke (verb) – bring to mind, awaken, suggest. Hindu Editorial usage  :   Of all the Lok Sabha by-elections in this round, Kairana in Uttar Pradesh evoked special interest because of the coming together of the opposition parties against the Bharatiya Janata Party broad-based (adjective) – wide-ranging, general. Hindu Editorial usage  :   Tabassum Hasan, and she won as a representative of a broad-based coalition, which included the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress. erosion (noun) – destruction, deterioration, decline. Hindu Editorial usage  :   That the RLD chose a Muslim candidate was significant as the party had suffered an erosion in its support base after the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2...