-Down to Earth Gender equality a far-fetched goal; women living alone more likely to be in the labour market, finds report Gender equality across the world remains a far-fetched goal and no country has achieved it so far, according to the 2020 edition of the United Nations report on the state of gender equality in the world. The attitudes of discrimination, however, have slowly changed in the last two decades, Liu Zhenmin, chief...

-The Hindu Business Line All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), welcomed the four farm legislations passed by the Punjab Assembly and urged all other States to follow the model so that the Centre’s three farm laws can be nullified. AIKS General Secretary and senior CPI(M) leader Hannan Mollah said the States and the Centre should enact a law promoting “Peasant-Worker Social Cooperatives” against corporatisation of agriculture. He said the passage of the Bills...

-Business Standard The MSP is declared for 23 crops. This means that farmers of other crops or those trying to diversify under contract farming would not have the MSP protection of the Bills Much was made of the Punjab government’s plan to reject the three central laws on agri markets and provide its own protection to famers, especially on prices for their produce. But, the two Bills presented in the state legislature...

-The Indian Express While much of the world is seeing benign inflation trends, India is a clear exception. Among the drivers of headline inflation in India in recent months has been food prices, especially those of vegetables. With economic activity picking pace after the easing of lockdown measures, the recovery has thrown up some paradoxes: revival in employment amid a fall in labour force participation, surging inflation rate despite disinflationary impact from...

-The Hindu The Chief Minister says he has delivered good governance and prosperity, but data show otherwise As Bihar goes to the polls, it is important to scrutinise Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s repeated claims about delivering ‘sushasan’ (good governance) and ‘taraqqi’ (prosperity). Does the reality justify these claims? Or are these boasts similar to the ‘Gujarat Model’, merely effective as propaganda? Poor on many indicators Bihar’s economy has performed poorly under the Janata Dal...