Hanging of Dec 16 convicts will not take place today

NEWDELHI: ADelhicourtonFriday postponed hanging of the four convictsintheDecember16gang rapecasetillfurtherorderswhile stating that if an appeal or applicationismadebyoneconvict,the execution of sentence shall be postponed for the co-convicts also. The victim’s mother broke down after the order, saying eithertheconvictsarehangedor the government should declare there are flaws in the laws.››

NEWDELHI: The Indian economy, which has been caught in a sixquarter deceleration, is already in a revival phase and GDP growth will increase to 6-6.5% fromthecurrentlevelinthenext fiscal year, according to the Economic Survey for 2019-2020, presented on Friday, a day ahead of the Union Budget for 2020-21.

Interestingly, growth data releasedbytheministryofstatistics a few hours after the survey was tabled in Parliament, said that the Indian economy grew at a slower pace than previously estimated last year (2018-19). It reducedGDPgrowthin2018-19to 6.1% from the provisional estimate of 6.8%. Provisional estimatesuseaso-calledbenchmark indicator method; the first revised estimates (the ones for 2018-19 were releasedon Friday) usedetailedinformationfromthe ministry of corporate affairs’ database.

To be sure, this revision will meanrecalculationofatleastthe growth rate for this year and the estimatedgrowthfornextyearin the Economic Survey. For instance,HT’scalculationshows that growth for 2019-20 will now be 5.7% against the previously estimated5%becauselastyear’s base has now shrunk.

That6-6.5%growthprojection for next year “may prove to be optimistic unless backed by a strong fiscal stimulus in the forthcoming Budget and the meeting of investment targets specified in the NIP both by the central and state governments,” said DK Srivastava, chief policy adviser, EY India.

HisreferenceistotheNational InfrastructurePipeline.Thegovernment had on December 31, 2019,unveiledthe~102lakhcrore capitalexpenditureplanininfrastructure sectors between 2019-25.