-Economic and Political Weekly     Looking at the National Sample Survey Office data on employment and unemployment by major religious groups, this article finds that the Muslim community remains worse-off compared to all other religious groups on almost all indicators. It is argued that to reap the "demographic dividend", Indian policymakers and administrators will have to proactively implement at least existing social welfare programmes, particularly those that are related to school education. Sunita...

-The Economic Times   If there are two statistics that summarise a nation's overall well-being, these are the infant mortality rate (IMR) and the maternal mortality rate (MMR). India has registered remarkable progress on both fronts over the last decade. IMR has declined 28% from 58 in 2004 to 42 in 2012. MMR has come down 36% from 280 in 2005 to 178 in 2012. The decline has been more spectacular in some...

-The Financial Express   Even in the BJP's Chhattisgarh, the costs of running the PDS outweigh the benefits-Aadhaar is the obvious answer   The first nail in Aadhaar's coffin, it has to be said, was driven in by none other than Nandan Nilekani. The day the father of the UIDAI's Aadhaar decided not to be a technocrat anymore, and chose to become a Congressman, he gave Aadhaar a distinct political flavour. It was now...

-The Hindu   Since 2004-05, for the first time in the history of India, more workers have left agriculture for productive work in industry and services Higher than normal inflation, high current account deficit, a depreciating rupee and slowing GDP growth might hold true in recent times. However, when it comes to employment, the facts are quite different as between 2009-10 and 2011-12, non-agricultural employment grew rapidly. Between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, National Sample Survey...

-The Indian Express   The Planning Commission numbers show that in the unorganised manufacturing sector, value added per worker has come down by over 5 per cent in the last decade. The Congress and the BJP manifestoes for the general elections talk about the need for raising employment numbers in multipliers but hardly show any understanding of where to maximise those. For both, the Holy Grail is rising of the profile of the...