Annual output growth was 4.2 per cent during the 2017-18 fiscal year that ended in March, lower than 4.8 per cent in the previous year, and dragged down by slower growth in the production of coal, steel and electricity.

Secondary steel output could be driven by recycled scrap.

The economic cost of judicial delays is colossal. But the problem is not unsolvable.

The Supreme Court has rejected a plea that asked for extension of the deadline of 31st March for linking Aadhaar with various services in the country. The information gap between various agencies has been the root cause of almost all economic and criminal offences apart from tax evasion in the country. Linking of services with Aadhaar will leave a digital trail which will help the government in tracking down any unusual and suspect movements. India definitely needs a national ID, but the government must ensure that data and biometrics are secured. Besides the government also has to ban photocopying of Aadhaar cards so that they cannot be misused; India's coal imports may increase after nearly two years of declining trend and that is because of an unusual development of shortage of trains in India to carry coal from the coal mines to the power plants. India needs 332 trains a day to carry coal. However, the availability of trains is in the region of 260-265. As a result, almost 10 plants in the country do not have enough coal supplies and another 45 have barely a week's supply of coal available; A lot of hope was pinned on the insolvency and bankruptcy procedure to clean up the banking system of bad loans. However, a few loopholes are being exploited by companies and bidders to muddle the issue and delay proceedings. BusinessToday.in Editor Rajeev Dubey elaborates in this episode of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Steel baron Sajjan Jindal beefed up capacities and turned around sick steel mills during the commodity downturn.

Companies in commodity sector like Sugar, Tea/Coffee, Chemicals, Cement, Oil exploration, refineries, iron & steel, metals have boosted the corporate performance in Sep 2017 quarter.

Heavy debt fails to deter JSW Group from plans to take over sick assets, large expansions and foray into electric car and paint businesses.

A battle royal is brewing between Coal India (CIL) and power plants over failure to maintain coal stockpiles.