-The Indian Express Warning signs across FMCG, tractors & 2-wheelers, gold, real rural wages THE GOVERNMENT Friday claimed that a significant divergence in levels of consumption and direction of change prompted it to withhold the findings of the survey on household consumption expenditure for July 2017-June 2018. But all major indicators of rural demand suggest the situation has only worsened since the beginning of financial year 2019-20, and the economy is...

-Financial Express If panchayat allocations are merged with MGNREGA to aid asset creation, it can trigger infrastructure growth, resulting in extra income and improved conditions. There is a lot of debate around 5% GDP growth and its impact on the organised sector. Although the government has been taking multiple steps to trigger the economy, there is a need to focus on rural India, in terms of optimising of fund allocations and revision...

-TheWire.in The lack of a cohesive legislative framework stigmatises domestic workers and is a colossal disservice to those who rely on domestic labour for their livelihood. Shipra Mondal has been a migrant for almost her entire life. Having first moved villages after marriage, Mondal has since shifted around, within the state of West Bengal, numerous times and now lives in a slum in East Kolkata. Her husband works at a construction site,...

  Air quality in North India in general and Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR) in particular plunged to its lowest point in recent years during October-November thanks to a variety of factors. Through media reports one comes to know that stubble burning (also called paddy straw burning/ crop residue burning) is chiefly responsible for the public health crisis in India's capital and its nearby regions. Data accessed from the website...

-The Telegraph Trade unions insist that there should only be a binding minimum wage instead of a dual wage rate The draft rules for the implementation of a new wage law have kept the criteria opaque for deciding the floor wage, binding across the country, prompting fear that it will allow the states to pay “distress wages” to workers. The trade unions are unhappy with the concept of a dual wage rate —...