The Hindu Businessline The average days of employment per household under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in FY23 are likely to be lower than in the last two fiscal years. This is according to the analysis of the data the Ministry of Rural Development put out. Data until March 6 show that the average days of employment under the Act was 45 in FY23. An extrapolation of the...

The year 2022 was supposed to mark the recovery of the Indian economy from the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns of the preceding two years. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February pushed up prices of food, fuel and fertilizer worldwide. In India consumer price inflation, which had declined to under 5 percent in the September-November period of 2021, has steadily increased, staying above 6 percent throughout 2022.    What happened to rural incomes in 2022? An...

Hindu Businessline El Nino is one piece in the mammoth jigsaw puzzle that the Pacific Ocean and its seasonal climatic patterns typify. Being the largest single body of water, the Pacific has an outsized influence on weather and climate across the globe. During El Niño, trade winds weaken and warm water gets pushed back East of the Pacific, towards the West coast of the Americas.  Generally, El Niño occurs more frequently than...

In 2017, journalist Gauri Lankesh was assassinated in Bangalore days before she planned to publish an article about disinformation. Over five years later, Forbidden Stories pursued Lankesh’s work on fake news and explored new leads in her murder case Phineas Rueckert & Srishti Jaswal - Forbidden Stories Oishika Neogi - Confluence Media Prajwal Bhat - Newsminute Laura Höflinger - Der Spiegel  On September 5, 2017, as 55-year-old journalist Gauri Lankesh walked up to the entryway...

Economic Times Unilever global chief executive Alan Jope said high inflation impacted demand from low income consumers in Indian villages even as growth remains stronger in cities. "The market growth in India remains stronger in urban areas than in rural areas and that reflects the high impact of high food inflation on low income consumers. We are seeing rural markets broadly flat in value terms with lower volumes," Jope said during its...