Best of BS Opinion: A fiscal road map, conserving groundwater, and more

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

Now that the first half of the financial year is over, the government has enough data to make a realistic assessment of the economic situation. This will help ascertain the kind of support the Indian economy needs. It would then be critical to evaluate the extent to which the government can stimulate economic activity, and how the required resources can be raised with minimal market disruption. In this context, our lead editorial argues that the government will need a clear road map for fiscal intervention to maximise its impact on the economy. Read here
 

Other opinion pieces talk about Centre-state relations, China, and exploitation of groundwater
 

It is clear that the roots of the trust deficit lie in the unwillingness of the political authorities to invest in cooperative federalism since their priority is to secure and wield power at the central level, writes Rathin Roy
 

Till today, Beijing does not formally accept any difference between the post-1962 line and the November 1959 line. However, the negotiators point out that it tacitly did accept the difference in 1983-84, by a willingness to consider the “LAC-plus solution”, writes Ajai Shukla
 

The new guidelines disregard the basic fact that the objective of groundwater conservation cannot be fully served unless its unrestrained and wasteful use in agriculture is also controlled, notes our second editorial 
 

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“Evidence seems to suggest this [flexible inflation targeting] is a good disciplining framework with good democratic accountability. We should persevere with it.”

Former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Viral Acharya