For which crop, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, CCEA, has increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP)?

The government has slashed the minimum annual deposit requirement for accounts under the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) to Rs 250 from Rs 1,000. The maximum amount that can be deposited in a year is Rs 1.5 lakh. Sukanya Samriddhi scheme was launched in January 2015, under which a parent or legal guardian can open an account in the name of the girl child until she attains the age of ten years. The account opened under the scheme will be valid for 21 years from the date of opening, after which it will mature and the money will be paid to the girl child in whose name the account is opened.

Fitch Ratings cut India's economic growth forecast for the next financial year starting April 1, to 6.8% from its previous estimate of 7%, on weaker than expected momentum in the economy. The rating agency also cut growth forecasts for FY20 and FY21 to 7% from 7.3% and 7.1% from 7.3%, respectively.

Union government retained the interest rate for General Provident Fund (GPF), Contributory Provident Fund and other related schemes at 8% for the first quarter of the current financial year 2019-2020. The interest rate on these funds was at 8% in the January-March quarter of 2018-19 and government kept it unchanged for April to June for 2019-20. The Department of Economic Affairs, in a notification, the mentioned interest rate will be applicable on provident funds of central government employees, railways and defence forces.

With robust private consumption and 7.4% GDP growth rate in the current fiscal, the Indian economy is expected to accelerate at a rate of 7.6% in 2019-20, according to a report by the United Nations titled United Nation's World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2019. As per the report, the world trade growth moderated over the course of 2018 to 3.8% from growth of 5.3% in 2017.

Several Asian member countries of the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) have offered India a concession on the extent to which it needs to open up its markets. India can now open up 83% of its market against the earlier 92%. The RCEP is a proposed trade agreement between the ASEAN countries and the six free trade agreement partners.

The U.S. revoked duty-free concessions on the import of at least 50 Indian products, mostly from handloom and agriculture sectors. The revocation is to reflect the Trump administration's tough stand on trade-related issues with New Delhi. The Federal Register issued a notification, listing 90 products which were so far subject to duty-free provisions under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), an oldest and largest U.S. trade preference programme. The GSP is designed to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary-countries. A count of these products indicated that at least 50 of them are from India. Notably, India is the largest beneficiary of the GSP.

Moody's expects the real gross domestic product (GDP) in India to grow 7.2 per cent in the year ending March 2019 and 7.4 per cent in the following year. Earlier Moody's Investors service growth prediction for India was 7.5% in 2018-19, 7.5% in 2019-20 released on 23rd August,2018. This growth is driven by investment growth and strong consumption. The stable outlook is based on six parameters - operating environment, asset quality, capital, funding and liquidity, profitability and efficiency, and government support.

As per the IMF's latest report, India is projected to grow at 7.3% in 2018 and 7.4% in 2019. The report predicted India to regain the tag of the world's fastest-growing major economy this year, crossing China with more than 0.7 percentage points. In China, growth is projected to moderate from 6.9 per cent in 2017 to 6.6% in 2018 and 6.2 % in 2019. In India, important reforms have been implemented in recent years, including the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the inflation-targeting framework, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and steps to liberalise foreign investment and make it easier to do business.

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has launched a mobile app 'GST Verify' developed by B Raghu Kiran, joint commissioner GST Hyderabad. It is an android app to verify if the person collecting GST from the consumer is eligible to collect it or not.

In its latest report, the US has said that it could remove India from its currency monitoring list of major trading partners citing certain developments and steps taken by New Delhi, which address some of its major concerns. India was for the first time, in April, placed by the US in its currency monitoring list of countries with potentially questionable foreign exchange policies along with five other countries - China, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland. This represented a notable change from 2017, when purchases over the first three quarters of the year pushed net purchases of foreign exchange above 2% of GDP. Recent sales came amid a turnaround in foreign portfolio inflows, as foreign investors pulled portfolio capital out of India (and many other emerging markets) over the first half of the year.