Contrary to the rising economic distress on the ground since the last few years, the official press release related to the fourth Annual Report on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) at first glance seems to give a rosy picture about the employment situation in India.  Defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force, the unemployment rate in usual status (principal activity status + subsidiary economic activity status)...

-Newsclick.in After Lekhpal exam papers were leaked, the big challenge before the UP CM now is to peacefully conduct the UPSSSC preliminary exams. Uttar Pradesh is infamous for paper leaks and court cases in government recruitment jobs. During the last tenure of Yogi Adityanath (2017-22), there were umpteen court cases on exam paper leaks and delayed exams. His second term, which started in March this year, is also following the SAMe trend...

-Newsclick.in Privatisation of grain procurement and cap on procurement subsidies are among the ideas being floated. Amid a slew of worrying news on the food grain front, the Narendra Modi-led government not only appears to be strangely cool, but it is also throwing up bizarre proposals to change the whole procurement-distribution system. This could be the famous ‘using a crisis as an opportunity’ mode of thinking that has led to catastrophic effects...

-The Telegraph Number of girls born per 1,000 boys improves by three points from an average 904 in 2017-19 to 907 in (the partly overlapping period of) 2018-20 India’s latest population SAMple registration survey has shown improvements in child mortality and the average sex ratio at birth. But that ratio — a possible indicator of pre-natal sex determination and sex-selective abortions — has declined in 10 states, including Bengal. The Union health ministry, releasing...

-Newslaundry.com The finance minister asked a valid question. Here’s the answer. Last Tuesday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked India’s corporate honchos why they were not investing in the Indian economy. “I want to hear from India Inc,” she said, “what’s stopping you when countries and industries abroad think this is the place to be.” This is a valid question. In this piece, we will try and piece together why India Inc, as corporate India...