-ThePrint.in From a record-breaking number of households demanding work under the MGNREGS to the stark decline in Consumption and FMCG sales — all signs point to a rural livelihood crisis. New Delhi: Consider a job offer where day wages are less than both statutory minimum wages and market wages for unskilled workers. The work may last for about 10 days at a time, and payments may take more than two weeks, at...

-The Hindu With government yet to begin procurement, many are forced to destroy their yield unable to meet even the transport cost Exactly five years after a police firing claimed the lives of six garlic farmers in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur who were protesting demanding minimum support price for their produce, farmers in the districts bordering Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are up in arms against the State and Union governments for price as...

-The India Forum The government's lack of respect for national surveys on Consumption has meant that the door has been opened to preparation of unofficial estimates on poverty made on questionable assumptions. Two such recent estimates highlight the need to resume collection of data to get a true picture of poverty The government of India does not seem to be interested in knowing how many poor there are in the country. The missing...

-The Hindu The delay in household Consumption expenditure survey leaves us unsure of the studies A noticeable absence in the blitzkrieg of information on the economy periodically unleashed by the Union government over the past few years has been estimates of poverty. A measure of the progress made with respect to the reduction of poverty in India is crucial to an assessment of the state of the economy of India, known to...

-The Telegraph Can stability be achieved by sacrificing growth? Has the macroeconomic configuration turned binary? With inflation occupying centre stage, the choice seems fast splitting between stability and growth. Can the former be secured without compromising the latter? That’s the worry with policies swinging to address price, exchange rate and external stability. This is not to say that growth has receded to secondary position. But as interest rates harden and fiscal policy...