-Down to Earth The environment ministry on February 22 wrote to all states, seeking their views on the matter, according to documents Does granting forest clearance to an agency lead to its name entering land title records? The Union environment ministry recently asked this to all states and Union territories. The letter dated February 22, 2021 from Assistant Inspector General of Forests Suneet Bhardwaj came on the back of repeated requests by the...

-Down to Earth A 10 μg/m3 rise in ambient PM 2.5 exposure caused a 0.07 g/dL decrease in average haemoglobin count Exposure to higher levels of particulate matter 2.5 in ambient air can result in anaemia in children under five years, according to a study by Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Malnutrition and anaemia are rampant in India, with 60 per cent of the children being anaemic as of 2016, according to the...

-Hindustan Times Studies have shown that women are willing to be employed, negating the argument that cultural factors keep women from working outside the household According to the Periodic Labour Force survey 2018-19, the female labour force participation rates among women aged above 15 years are as low as 26.4% in rural areas and 20.4% in urban areas in India. Both supply and demand factors contribute to the low levels of employment...

When a massive sum of public money is spent on a programme like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA)--a demand-driven programme, there is likelihood of financial misappropriations and mismanagement. Thankfully there are checks and balances in the rural employment guarantee legislation to counter such malpractices. It is worth noting that the total allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA) for 2020-21 was Rs. 1,11,500.00 crore (R.E.), up...

-The Hindu To say that growth and inequality converge in terms of their effects on socio-economic outcomes is outrageous The Economic survey 2021 (https://bit.ly/2OfqfVQ) does not seem to be a policy document derived straight from the empirical data of the economy or the social compulsions embedded in it. On the contrary, the survey rings with policy postulates based on strong ideological overtones. Of interest would be Chapter 4, captioned ‘Inequality and Growth:...