-The Hindu Held to account by the Supreme Court, the Central government is using opaque methods to change the key provisions of the employment guarantee scheme and make it targeted instead of universal. There is a pithy saying in Hindi that the elephant has two sets of teeth, one for show and the other to eat. This seems an apt description of the approach of the Narendra Modi government towards the implementation...

-The Hindu  The latest inflation readings based on the Wholesale Price Index and the Consumer Price Index are a cause for concern. While the annual gain in wholesale prices hit a 23-month high of 3.55 per cent in July, retail inflation quickened past the Centre’s new Monetary Policy Framework’s upper limit for tolerance to 6.07 per cent. Food costs — a key component in both indices — were the main culprit....

Rising prices of dal: How to deal with it? The 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. In India, however, ordinary citizens are under enormous duress due to the skyrocketing prices of dal/ lentils since the last one year. The website of Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs shows that dal prices varied across places. For example, the...

-Livemint.com The report also suggested revising pay under MGNREGS on the basis of Consumer Price Index for Rural (CPI-Rural) as the appropriate index New Delhi: The finance ministry has rejected a report by the rural development ministry, which recommended that wages under the national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) be made equal to or higher than the minimum wage determined by state governments. The report prepared by a panel headed by S....

-Business Standard The latest bout of retail inflation was caused by vegetables, but prices of these items are not as worrisome as those of pulses The latest bout of Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation was caused by vegetables, but prices of these items are not as worrisome as those of pulses, which saw a slight moderation in June. Besides, inflation in cereals has been rising modestly, but if not checked this could...