-CBGA Blog India presented its latest Union Budget (for FY 2022 -23) in early February amid much hope, as the country is still reeling from the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic, which has lasted for two years. To deal with the pandemic induced socio-economic crisis, countries across the world have been announcing policy measures outside of their annual budgets. The Indian government, too, made many such announcements, but given the scale of the...
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Questions on MGNREGA budget estimation -Laavanya Tamang and Anuj Goyal
-The Hindu How the Centre’s approach has eroded the very premise of MGNREGA The disappointing allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the FY 2022-23 budget has created a buzz. Organisations such as the All India Kisan Sabha and NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM) have raised concerns about the inadequacy of the amount. Grassroots activists and academics have been demanding higher budgetary allocations for MGNREGA; yet, the...
More »‘Unified MGNREGS wages needed’: Panel flags pay disparity in Centre's flagship rural employment scheme
-The New Indian Express Having a uniform rate will also be convenient in terms of calculations and indexation in one go for the entire country rather than different States/UTs bringing in their own dynamics, the report said NEW DELHI: A parliamentary standing committee has flagged the disparity in wage rates in various states under the rural employment scheme MGNREGS, calling it baffling and unjustified. While in states like Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand, the...
More »New EPFO accounts no proxy for new jobs -Santosh Mehrotra and Kingshuk Sarkar
-FinancialExpress.com Recent registrations cited as proof of job creation were mostly formalisation of existing jobs Defending the Centre’s record on employment, prime minister Narendra Modi, in a speech in Rajya Sabha, talked about the impressive net enrolment to Employment Provident Fund Organization (EPFO): during 2021, 1.20 crore beneficiaries were enrolled under EPF—about 65 lakh beneficiaries in the 18-25 age bracket, implying they are first-time entrants to the labour market. He connected the...
More »Claims vs reality: India's bleak job picture -Santosh Mehrotra and Tuhinsubhra Giri
-Deccan Herald Poor pandemic management has added 10 million youth to the ranks of the unemployed in the country India’s GDP growth rate has been slowing consistently since 2016, thanks to consistent economic policy mistakes made by the Union government, starting with demonetisation. It hurt the non-farm unorganised sector MSMEs, as it hurt agriculture (third year running, after two years of drought in 2014 and 2015). Between them, these sectors are responsible for...
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