-Scroll.in It is essential for policy makers to understand the crises created by widening income inequalities and labour market ruptures. In the context of the current global macro-economic situation, there are three deep currents for the Indian government to be aware of. How it understands and responds to these challenges will shape the country’s socio-economic trajectory over the next few years. The first undercurrent: the deepening of income and wealth inequalities. Second: a...

-The Hindu The need is to convince farmers of other effective policy interventions that are World Trade Organization compatible The demand of farmers to provide a legal guarantee for the minimum support price (MSP) for their produce has triggered a nationwide debate. Some believe it would be “fiscally ruinous” to procure all the 23 crops for which MSP is announced annually. Others contend that procuring these crops would be a logistical nightmare....

-The Hindu Business Line Economy is recovering but rural labour market still in distress Even as the economy is on the recovery track — spurring optimism about job creation and better employment prospects — a large part of the labour force, especially in the rural areas, continues to face challenges. Data from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) indicates that stress in the labour market, which escalated after Covid-19 lockdowns,...

-The Hindu The Socio-Economic Caste Census, 2011 was organised not as an OBC survey but to get the caste status of all in the country in order to improve the delivery of targeted benefits, the Centre said. The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the law negated a caste census and “the Constitution believes in population and not in caste or religion” even as the Centre insisted that data collated during a Socio-Economic...

-The Hindu There is a gap between what the goverment says on the international stage and what it does at home At the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the developed countries, which continue to be the most responsible for the destruction of the biosphere, resorted to their usual tactics of bullying the less developed world to accept higher targets for...