-Down to Earth MGNREGA budget has declined in real terms over the years, despite claims of “highest ever” allocations In 2004, before India had any legal welfare entitlements for the informal sector, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, was furiously debated in the Parliament and the media. The aim of this legislation was to address the crisis of under employment and unemployment in the rural economy and provide job opportunities through public works...

-TheWire.in Demonetisation as a means of tackling the black economy was destined to fail. What’s worse is that its ripple effects are having severe adverse effects on India’s economy. That 99% of the currency demonetised found its way back to the RBI has been known for some time. The surprise is why it took so long for the announcement to be made. An article in the Economic and Political Weekly in June...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The RBI has told a parliamentary panel that it has "no information" on how much black Money has been extinguished as a result of demonetisation of Rs 500/1,000 notes or about unaccounted cash legitimised through exchange of currency post note ban. Stating that an estimated Rs 15.28 lakh crore in junked notes has come back "subject to future corrections based on verification process", the Reserve Bank also said it...

-PTI Washington: Basu said from 2003 to 2011, India was growing typically over 8 per cent per annum. The year of global crisis, 2008, it dropped briefly to 6.8 per cent, but over 8 per cent growth had become the new norm for India. The downturn in India’s growth is “very worrying”, World Bank’s former chief economist Kaushik Basu said, underscoring that this is the “hefty price” the country had to pay...

-Frontline.in The death of nearly 60 children in Gorakhpur because of the unavailability of oxygen can be directly attributed to the larger issue of drastic reduction in budgetary allocations for and the gross neglect of the public health system. THE death of almost 60 children, including infants, in the government-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur within a span of 48 hours raises several issues relating to the state...