-The Telegraph Demand for sustainable or organic cotton on the rise, providing an opportunity for the country to excel A few years ago, images of the drying up of the eastern bed of the Aral Sea had shocked millions. It was linked to the widespread growing of unsustainable cotton, backed by the Uzbekistan government, to pocket greater forex earnings and satiate the demands of the global fashion industry. The demand for sustainable...

-Hindustan Times Data also suggests that at least some of the improvement could be because of an increase in poor-quality jobs, a trend seen regularly since the Covid-19 pandemic India’s headline urban unemployment rate reached its lowest-ever level in the quarter ending September 2022, according to the quarterly bulletin of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on November 24. However, the bulletin’s data also suggests...

-The Telegraph About 20 workers would come to the work site every day, get photographed for attendance carrying basketfuls of soil or digging the earth, and then leave without doing any real work New Delhi: This summer, Gaudsahi village under Kapileswarpur gram panchayat in Odisha’s Puri district began renovating the village pond under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. About 20 workers would come to the work site every day, get...

-The Hindu The best way to support the manufacturing sector is to free it from the umpteen regulations that have stalled investment for decades Many Indians on a daily basis use sophisticated goods that are either fully imported or just simply assembled in India. This is because India lacks a well-developed manufacturing supply chain that could help produce things from scratch. To tackle this, in 2020, the Central government came up with...

Contrary to the rising economic distress on the ground since the last few years, the official press release related to the fourth Annual Report on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) at first glance seems to give a rosy picture about the employment situation in India.  Defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force, the unemployment rate in usual status (principal activity status + subsidiary economic activity status)...