-Press release by World Bank dated November 14, 2022 NEW DELHI: A new World Bank report estimates that India will need to invest $840 billion over the next 15 years—or an average of $55 billion per annum—into urban infrastructure if it is to effectively meet the needs of its fast-growing urban population. The report, titled “Financing India’s Urban Infrastructure Needs: Constraints to Commercial Financing and Prospects for Policy Action” underlines the...

-The Telegraph A system without any steering control An essential characteristic of modern capitalism is that the living conditions of millions of people are determined by the whims and caprices of a handful of financial speculators; indeed, that is what ‘leaving things to the market’ really entails. Consider what is happening in India today. There is a massive outflow of finance from the country because of which the rupee is depreciating  vis-à-vis...

-Newsclick.in Inequality is not natural but manufactured. It’s time policymakers stopped normalising the wealth and income gap. Else, post-Covid inequality could become a permanent feature. Wealth and income inequality are more than just economic concepts. They also influence education and health outcomes, poverty levels, employment and unemployment rates, opportunities, choices, and, ultimately, happiness. Of late, several reports have investigated the impact of COVID-19 on various segments of society at the regional, national,...

-The Telegraph Food prices, which account for nearly half of the consumer price index basket, softened last month The finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are in discussions on the inflation trajectory amid the easing of global commodity and crude oil prices. A Reuters poll of economists forecast retail inflation at a five-month low in July at 6.78 per cent. But it is still above the RBI’s upper threshold...

-Newsclick.in The Education Department has attributed the delay in payment to the non-release of the funds by the state Finance Department. Lucknow: Government schools in Uttar Pradesh have reportedly not received any money for mid-day meals for the last three months, preventing some schools from serving food to children under the scheme. In a few schools, teachers and gram pradhan (village head) have been spending from their own pockets or buying rations...