Morning Digest | Finance Ministry says wrong to assess economic activity on GDP alone, number of Nipah virus cases rises to six in Kozhikode, and more

The Hindu’s Morning Digest brings readers a select list of stories to start the day

Nipah outbreak | Number of cases rises to six in Kozhikode

One more person tested positive for the Nipah infection in Kozhikode district of Kerala on Friday, taking the total number of infected persons to six now. Meanwhile, lab tests have proved that E. Mohammedali, the first patient who died on August 30, too was infected with Nipah. His body fluid samples could not be sent earlier. However, the throat swab stored at a private hospital where he had been admitted was later recovered and sent. The results were made available on Friday. The spread of the infection is reported to have happened at this private hospital. Thirty samples of healthcare workers here have tested negative for the virus. So far, 100 samples have been sent for lab tests.

Supreme Court has prepared a ‘platform’ to assess ‘top’ 50 judges before appointment in the apex court: CJI

Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Friday said the apex court with a young team of distinguished scholars, interns and law researchers had prepared a “broad platform” to assess every one of the “top 50 judges” in the country who would be considered for appointment as judges of the Supreme Court. “One of the criticisms about the collegium system is that we have no factual data to evaluate people whom we are considering for appointment to the Supreme Court,” Chief Justice Chandrachud noted. The Chief Justice was speaking at the Ram Jethmalani Memorial Lecture’s centenary edition when he unravelled the “work in progress” to make the collegium system “more transparent”.

Wrong to assess economic activity on GDP alone: Finance Ministry

The Finance Ministry on September 15 scotched aspersions cast by “certain sections” on the credibility of Indian GDP data, which showed a 7.8% uptick in the first quarter of this year, stressing that Indian GDP data is not seasonally adjusted and is finalised three years later so “it is wrong to look at the underlying economic activity based on GDP indicators alone”. “Ideally, critics would have done well to look at several other growth indicators to see if other data match their conclusions. Purchasing Managers’ Indices indicate that the manufacturing and services sectors are growing. Bank credit growth is in double digits. Consumption is improving, and the government has vigorously ramped up capital expenditure,” the Ministry said in a long post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

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