Contrary to the rising economic distress on the ground since the last few years, the official press release related to the fourth Annual Report on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) at first glance seems to give a rosy picture about the employment situation in India.  Defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force, the unemployment rate in usual status (principal activity status + subsidiary economic activity status)...

-Livemint.com The government had to lower the import duty on edible oils several times in recent months to tame food inflation NEW DELHI: The government is set to launch an oilseed mission to boost domestic production of oilseeds and reduce import dependence, said NITI Aayog member, agriculture, Ramesh Chand. India currently makes around ₹1 trillion worth of edible oil imports every year or nearly half of its demand. The proposed scheme was devised after...

-The Hindu He said that every disengagement process, the Army climbed down further, thereby ceding the space to China and creating new buffer zones. The village head of one of the last settlements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh’s Chushul said on Tuesday that in the past year at least three large grazing areas near the village have been turned into “no man’s land” or “buffer zones” after Indian...

-The India Forum There has been an increase in economic ineQuality in India over the past few decades, with the rich-poor gaps among the largest of several peer economies. Household surveys show that alongside the slowdown of growth in recent years, there appears to have been some decrease in ineQuality. 1. Introduction Popular discussions on ineQuality in India receive periodic attention with the annual publication of reports by the World Inequalities Database (WID),...

-The Hindu Near-universal social security pensions would be a good start to a radical expansion of public support for the elderly Life expectancy in India has more than doubled since Independence — from around 32 years in the late 1940s to 70 years or so today. Many countries have done even better, but this is still a historical achievement. Over the same period, the fertility rate has crashed from about six children...