-The Tribune Rural debt doubles to Rs 80,000 crore in 7 years | Most deaths reported in Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar Chandigarh: With the rural indebtedness in Punjab’s predominant agrarian economy touching Rs 80,000 crore, each rural household in the state is under a debt of an average Rs. 8 lakh. Or simply put, 89 per cent of the 10.53 lakh households in Punjab are under debt. This also shows how rural indebtedness in...

-The Hindu Unlike the ‘Economic Survey’ proposal, the idea behind a universal basic income is one of redistribution The Economic Survey 2016-17 tabled in Parliament last month has proposed introducing a universal basic income in India, and has devoted an entire chapter to this new idea. A universal and unconditional income transfer to all citizens in order to address the twin problems of poverty and unemployment is undoubtedly a proposal that merits...

-Economic and Political Weekly Gian Singh (giansingh88@yahoo.com), Anupama (anupamauppal@yahoo. com) and Rupinder Kaur (rupinderkaur0076@gmail.com) teach economics at Punjabi University, Patiala; Gurinder Kaur (gurinder2005@yahoo.co.in) and Sukhvir Kaur (drsukhvir.sk@gmail.com) teach economics at Dashmesh Khalsa College, Zirakpur. The paper examines various hitherto unexplored aspects of indebtedness among farmers and agricultural labour households in rural Punjab. It analyses the extent and distribution of indebtedness among farmers and agricultural labourers, their sources of debt and the per...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has voiced shock that a scholarship for underprivileged meritorious students had not been revised since the scheme was launched in 2008, leaving it at less than half of what households now spend on average on a higher secondary student. According to a survey on social consumption, households spend Rs 12,619 a year on a plus-2 student's schooling, while the yearly amount under the National Means-cum-Merit...

-The Indian Express Demonetisation shows India’s social welfare measures like MGNREGS to be worryingly patchy Following the announcement of demonetisation, reports of its devastating impact on informal sector workers, farmers and migrants began to pour in from across the country. Seeking evidence on two questions — do social security measures work in the face of such an economic shock, and do these programmes themselves face disruption because of demonetisation — we conducted...