In the absence of income or expenditure-based headcount ratio, the growth in the real wages (i.e., nominal wages adjusted against retail inflation) of the manual workers is considered to be a good proxy to assess the trends in poverty. This is because the manual, unskilled/ semi-skilled labourers exist at the bottom of the pyramid or economic hierarchy, and most of them belong to the social categories Scheduled Castes (SCs) and...

-TheFederal.com BJP’s second consecutive win in Uttar Pradesh shows the electorate’s overwhelming acceptance for Hindutva politics despite personal grievances against policies that have led to mass-scale unemployment, rising prices, and other issues that seemingly hit closer home BJP has not just broken the Uttar Pradesh jinx of 35 years to score the second consecutive win in the state assembly elections, its victory is going to set the course of Indian politics till...

-Newsclick.in The roots of the present crisis lie in wrong policies adopted over the last two decades that have undermined domestic production of fertilisers led by the public sector and increased dependence on imports and production by the private sector. Indian farmers have been facing a major crisis because of shortages in availability and an unprecedented rise in prices of fertilisers. Fertilisers are a critical input for agriculture, and a shortage in...

-The Hindu Dependence on private sector is on the rise, they say Channai: Farmers supplying milk to the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (Aavin) have urged the State government to increase procurement prices. Citing the example of another cooperative, Amul, which has recently hiked selling price of milk by ₹2 per litre, M.G. Rajendran of the Tamil Nadu Milk Producers Welfare Association said farmers in Gujarat, where Amul is based out of,...

-The New Indian Express As crude oil prices soar to record highs, panic buying of diesel has started in Punjab  with a 70 per cent rise in sales as compared to the same period last year. CHANDIGARH: As crude oil prices soar to record highs, panic buying of diesel has started in Punjab  with a 70 per cent rise in sales as compared to the same period last year. People fear that...