-ThePrint.in India needs a National Employment Strategy with ministries made to submit to PMO annual action plans on how they will realise the goals. India’s labour market is ailing, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first term bore the brunt of the debate on the nation’s employment crisis. In the last five years, all efforts to generate a debate on how best to address the crisis have ended up in controversy — be...

-TheWire.in "I think the fact that the whole [NSSO] exercise began with a fundamental premise of keeping it comparable, that has been forgotten." The fierce debate over India’s unemployment figures came to a head last week, when a jobs data report by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) was finally made public. This report has been a source of contention ever since two members of the National Statistical Commission (NSC)  resigned allegedly...

-The Indian Express Before contemplating new rural programmes, government must expand MGNREGA In the run up to the elections, a plethora of redistributive programmes, including farm loan waivers, cash transfers and minimum income guarantees came to the forefront as campaigners sought to balm rural distress. Amongst these is a proposal to launch a revised NREGA 3.0, in which 150 days of employment would be guaranteed to the rural Poor. Almost 15...

-The Hindu Rising unemployment must also be seen as a function of rising education and aspirations The report from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) is finally out, garnering a lot of attention based on selective reading of tables and spurring partisan debates. In particular, the staggering increase in the unemployment rate, from 1.7% in 2011-12 to 5.8% in 2017-18 for rural men and from 3.0% to 7.1% for urban men, has...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government is set to offer additional foodgrains at subsidised rates to offload massive stocks piled up in granaries due to a liberal support price regime and also add a kilo of sugar to the monthly ration for beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). Over the next few days, the Union Cabinet is expected to decide on providing additional 2 kg grains to every...