Punjab municipal polls on Dec 17

CHANDIGARH: The elections in three municipal corporations of Jalandhar,amritsarandpatiala, and 32 municipal councils and notified area committees will be held on December 17. State election commissioner Jagpal Singh Sidhu said the process will begin on December 2, with the commission issuing a notification. The model code of conduct will come into effect immediately after the issuance of poll notification. NEW DELHI: India’s economic growth quickened to 6.3% in the September quarter after five quarters of consecutive decline, sliding to a three-year-low of 5.7% in the June quarter, as manufacturing picked up due to restocking of warehouses by companies after the temporary disruption caused by the roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST).

While agriculture decelerated to 1.7% in the September quarter from 2.3% in the June quarter due to unfavourable kharif output, manufacturing grew to 7% from 1.2% during the same period. Mining output and electricity generation also grew faster than the first quarter at 5.5% and 7.6% respectively. However, most of the services sector slowed down, including public expenditure which slowed 6% growth in the second quarter against 9.5% in the first.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the September quarter marks the reversal of the downward trend in economic growth. “This indicates that perhaps the impact of the two structural reforms --demonetisation and GST- is behind us and hopefully, we can look for an upward trajectory in the third and the fourth quarter,” he added.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram, however, said this was a pause in the declining