-Scroll.in India's social-sector spending remains woefully low and despite claims of being a pro-farmer Budget, the effective allocations are nearly the same as last year. Some commentators expected that the Union Budget 2017-’18 would craft a sharp departure from earlier budgets of this government. This it would do to mitigate the immense suffering of millions of casual workers, farmers and small traders caused by the “shock and awe” of the astoundingly callous...
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Will Budget help double farmers' income? -Vidya Venkat
-The Hindu Most of the earnings of the average farm household were spent in meeting consumption expenditures. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a slew of measures in the Union Budget 2017 to boost the agriculture sector. Higher agricultural credit, higher allocation for irrigation projects, a crop insurance scheme and increased allocations for MGNREGA to dig farm ponds were among the measures announced on February 1. But will these help attain the goal...
More »The Tale And Maths Of Universal Basic Income -Jean Dreze
-NDTV The rock-star days are back for Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, who had maintained a studied silence ever since India scored an economic self-goal over his head on 8 November 2016. His ambitious Economic Survey, released on Tuesday, includes a much-awaited presentation of the Finance Ministry's thinking on Universal Basic Income (UBI). Contrary to some media reports, the Survey does not advocate a specific plan for UBI in India. Rather,...
More »The majority at the margins -Jayati Ghosh
-The Indian Express Protests by the people against inequality are producing governments that move exactly in the opposite direction We all know that the world is an unequal place, both across and within countries. We also know that across the world, people are expressing their anger and disgust at this inequality. This is increasingly revealed in extreme and often paradoxical political results. In the US, a vote against the establishment has just...
More »Pardon, the gender wage gap is showing -G Sampath
-The Hindu ILO finds women form 60% of lowest paid wage labour, but only 15% of highest wage-earners India had among the worst levels of gender wage disparity — men earning more than women in similar jobs — with the gap exceeding 30 per cent, the Global Wage Report 2016-17 released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) revealed last week. In contrast, Singapore had among the lowest, at 3 per cent. Among major...
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