-The New Indian Express BENGALURU: Sixty manual scavengers have died over the last 10 years while at work. The families of 23 victims were paid compensation ranging between `5 lakh and `10 lakh while 37 families are yet to be compensated, according to data available with the Social Welfare Department. But the reality is that many cases either go unreported or are considered as unnatural deaths and booked under various Acts. The Prohibition...

-Hindustan Times The last few weeks have seen a spate of government notifications making Aadhaar mandatory for receiving the benefits of government programmes. The most recent orders relate to an Aadhaar requirement for children to access schools (even under their fundamental right to education), mid-day meals, supplementary nutrition (ICDS) and scholarships. These directives raise a number of ethical as well as practical questions, besides violating children’s right to education, nutrition and...

-The Indian Express As per the methodology, since no direct data of expenditure is used, most of the GDP data is calculated based on output data The answer to the puzzling rise in Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) in the second advance estimate of GDP for 2016-17 despite the evident cash squeeze due to demonetisation may very well lie in the methodology used for calculating the new series of GDP. As per...

-The Hindu Labour Ministry to discuss revised guidelines at GoM The Labour Ministry has proposed that factories with up to 500 workers be allowed to lay off workers or shut shop without seeking government permission, in a bid to give firms flexibility in hiring and firing employees. The Ministry is set to discuss the proposed Labour Code on Industrial Relations at the next meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM), scheduled for March...

-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...