-Livemint.com This preference for spending on religious services than sanitation extends across income and spatial divides Cleanliness is next to godliness—or so we are told. In India, cleanliness actually ranks several notches below godliness on the priority list. A recent report by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) shows that Indians are willing to spend more on religious services than on sanitation, irrespective of spatial and income divide. The survey, findings of which...

-Livemint.com Bus most common mode of transport; more people stay with friends and relatives, shows NSSO data If you travel by air or stay in hotels during your domestic jaunts, you are not a typical Indian tourist. The bus is the most common mode of transport and more people stay with friends and relatives during such trips than in hotels and guest houses, according to a National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)...

-Livemint.com In the last decade, the rural constituent has emerged an important factor for overall private final consumption, which forms more than half (55-60% range) of India’s demand side GDP An above-average monsoon is commonly expected to be a key demand driver in 2016-17. Gross domestic product (GDP) forecasts for the year incorporate a revival in rural consumption—a segment that suffered severe setback from two successive years of adverse rainfall. In...

-Business Standard FY10 was a drought year with a monsoon rainfall deficiency of 22 per cent of the 50-year average, resulting in a seven per cent dip in the total foodgrains production. But, that did not dampen the consumer sentiment as the auto sector grew by 26 per cent, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) 25 per cent and the consumer durables sector by 21 per cent. The momentum continued the following year,...

It seems that not only civil society activists, but even the poor and marginalized themselves are not happy with the Centre’s social welfare policies. Following the recent protest by 150 eminent persons regarding failure of the NDA Government to take-up urgent measures for employment generation and ensuring food, nutrition & drinking water security in the backdrop of severe drought in roughly 1/3rd of Indian districts (please click here to access),...