-Hindustan Times According to the 2011 census, 45% of India’s total workers are employed in the non-agricultural sector. This number excludes those who work as either cultivators or agricultural labourers Employment generation (or the lack of it) will probably be the biggest issue in next year’s general elections. India’s employment challenge is broadly perceived as one of moving agricultural workers to remunerative jobs in the non-farm sector, and rightly so. With a...

-Hindustan Times Profitability takes a hit as real MSPs have not risen over the years New Delhi: Most commentary around rural anger in India has been focused on either the sector’s growth performance or government spending on agriculture. Such analysis is likely to present an incomplete picture at best. Government spending on agriculture is a small fraction of the total agricultural economic output. In 2017-18, the ministry of agriculture’s spending was less...

-Hindustan Times Subramanian says due to less suitable global economic scene, reaching double-digit growth will need more hard work The announcement that Arvind Subramanian, India’s Chief Economic Advisor (CEA), is quitting for personal reasons to return to the United States has generated considerable attention. The CEA spoke to Prashant Jha about his time in government and the state of the economy: * As you look back, what are the key highlights and the...

-Hindustan Times Osmanabad, and Yavatmal in Vidarbha are two of the worst affected districts in the state, in the last seven years. In a recent study of 450 families that have witnessed farmer suicides in Osmanabad district of Marathwada, the Tata Institute of Social Studies (TISS) found that farmers from nuclear families are more vulnerable to commit suicide than those in joint families. Osmanabad, and Yavatmal in Vidarbha are two of the worst...

-Hindustan Times Citizens are finding innovative ways to protest and are often doing so without the help of political parties, who often arrive ‘late to the party’. Though the recent violence in Shillong began over a minor scuffle and spread through a fabricated story on WhatsApp, it took almost a week to de-escalate tensions between members of the Sikh community, long-time settlers in the Punjabi Lane area of the city, and Khasis,...