-Financial Express Dataset and methodological weaknesses cast doubt on recent poverty estimates that claim drastic reduction Bhalla, Bhasin and Virmani in a working paper (IMF), claimed India’s poverty, per a $1.9 per person per day poverty line (at PPP), was 0.9% of the population in 2020. Thanks to government transfer of free rations of 5 kg per person month, it fell to 0.8% (from 0.9% in 2019). Roy and de Velt, for...
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The Incomplete Project Of E-Shram, India’s Database Of Unorganised Workers -Sweta Dash
-Article-14.com India’s 380 million informal workers will be registered on a new database that will allow, says the government, social security payments. It isn’t working as it should because the government insists on Aadhaar, which many workers do not have. Others do not know of it, and if they do, may not be digitally literate, and it isn’t clear what entitlements will follow for workers whose data are being collected. New Delhi:...
More »The curious case of Meghalaya’s COVID-19 relief package -Rakshita Swamy and Angela Rangad
-The Hindu Audits, transparency and citizen-centric accountability need to be a part of fund support and disbursement Every COVID-19 wave in India has brought us face to face with the dire precarity of life and livelihood for India’s vast numbers of Unorganised Workers, and the inadequate response of the state and society to their plight. The latest global OXFAM inequality report highlights how India’s billionaires have grown dramatically in numbers and wealth,...
More »MGNREGA demand dropped from June 2020 peak, but still higher than pre-COVID: Eco Survey -Priscilla Jebaraj
-The Hindu High demand in migrant destination States, not source States: it says Demand for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme has dropped from the peak of the first lockdown, but is still higher than pre-COVID levels, the Department of Economic Affairs said in its annual Economic Survey, noting that this is “an indicator of rural labour markets”. However, it cautioned against drawing conclusions about the movement...
More »India’s economy and the challenge of informality -R Nagaraj and Radhicka Kapoor
-The Hindu Policy efforts to formalise the economy will have limited results as the bulk of informal units are petty producers Since 2016, the Government has made several efforts to formalise the economy. Currency demonetisation, introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), digitalisation of financial transactions and enrolment of informal sector workers on numerous government Internet portals are all meant to encourage the formalisation of the economy. But why the impetus...
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