-The Economic Times It is scandalous that inflation in cereals remains above 17 per cent even as food grain stocks with the Centre are close to 80 million tonnes. The Committee on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) paper estimates that the buffer stocking requirement would go up, thanks to the Food Security law, but not higher than 41.5 million as of July 1. The rest is excess. The government must sell off...

-The Indian Express The latest NSSO data also underlines the increasing absence of women from the labour market Every time results from one of the "thick" rounds of the National Sample Survey come out, we get into a feeding frenzy, trying to slice and dice the statistics for changes since the previous round. Since NSS large rounds are typically conducted every five years, there is perhaps some sense to it, particularly when...

-The Indian Express Why the proposed national minimum wage is the wrong answer to questions of unemployment and poverty The recent national labour conference - a trade union love fest with little real employer participation - demanded a national minimum wage. The trade union demand is a predictable positioning of narrow self-interest as national interest but the government's acceptance of their demand is unfair, delusional and economically stupid. Unfair, because it pampers a...

-The Hindu Whichever way one looks at the data, there is nothing much to crow about the 68th round of survey Whichever way one looks at the key indicators of employment and unemployment released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) recently, there is nothing much to crow about in inferences that can be drawn from the data collected in the 68th round of survey conducted during the period July 2011 to...

-The Economic Times Over the last decade the UPA government has tried to reduce poverty by legislating a regime of rights accompanied by the national rural employment guarantee (NREG) programme -spending Rs 1,70,000 crore on this strategy. This strategy would have been fine if the transformation of India from a strong currency, high growth and low inflation economy to aweak currency, low growth and high inflation economy had been accompanied by a...