-Newsclick.in India's job market is tightening, and skilled workers are finding it harder to enter the workforce. Government job drives and the informal economy have been unable to make up the difference. Pramod Lal is a 23-year-old recent business graduate from northern India, who thought he had the credentials to be competitive in the job market. However, Lal's attempts to start a career have yet to succeed. "Education is no guarantee for a...

-Deccan Herald What the 2020 annual Periodic Labour Force Survey data reveals is that the situation remains grim The Covid-19 pandemic has only worsened what was already a joblessness crisis in early 2020. The third annual labour force survey (2019-20) by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), covering the period till June 30, 2020, told a grim story. Earlier, the NSSO had in 2017-18 reported that open unemployment had reached a 45-year...

-Financial Express Dataset and methodological weaknesses cast doubt on recent poverty estimates that claim drastic reduction Bhalla, Bhasin and Virmani in a working paper (IMF), claimed India’s poverty, per a $1.9 per person per day poverty line (at PPP), was 0.9% of the population in 2020. Thanks to government transfer of free rations of 5 kg per person month, it fell to 0.8% (from 0.9% in 2019). Roy and de Velt, for...

-The Hindu Reviving the official household spending survey is only a first step India’s official statistical machinery is gearing up to relaunch the All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey, traditionally undertaken quinquennially, from July 2022. If it fructifies, the result may be known towards the latter half of 2024, provided the Government permits the release. The last such Survey (2017-18), did not get such a sanction — its results reportedly indicated the first...

-The Hindu Exponential rise in expenditure on material component, notes study group Hyderabad: Budget cuts for the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee scheme coupled with the administrative changes have resulted in reduced employment through the highly successful rural employment scheme in Telangana in the year 2021-22. Improvement in COVID-19 pandemic situation too has been a major factor. Analysis of three years’ data related to the scheme’s expenditure in Telangana’s 32 districts has revealed...