-The Indian Express Current economic contraction is different from previous ones. Governments should borrow and spend India has never experienced negative economic growth since 1979-80, and before that in 1972-73, 1965-66 and 1957-58. All these were drought years with 1957-58 also registering a significant balance of payments (BOP) deterioration and 1979-80 witnessing the second global oil shock following the Iranian Revolution. The real GDP decline of 5-10 per cent that various agencies are...

-Second MGNREGA tracker by Peoples' Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG), released on 17th August, 2020 A MGNREGA tracker has been prepared by the Peoples' Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) that brings to you the latest developments, updates, and figures on the implementation of MGNREGA across the country till 3rd August, 2020. Given the significant role that MGNREGA is playing in the lives and livelihoods of rural workers, PAEG intends to keep...

-TheNewsMinute.com Kerala has become a state fueled by a remittance economy, but the origins of this, dates back to several decades. In the summer of 1980, I visited Kerala’s Varkala in Thiruvanathapuram for the FIRst time. It was the peak of the FIRst Gulf boom. The media was full of stories on the ones who had made it big. But I was doing an article on the petrodollar paupers — the ignored...

-The Hindu Office cites ‘diversion of resources’ clause; former CIC Wajahat Habibullah terms it ‘misuse of Act’. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has denied a Right to Information request related to the PM-CARES Fund on the grounds that providing it would “disproportionately divert the resources of the office.” However, a High Court judgment and multiple orders of the Central Information Commission (CIC) have previously held that, under the RTI Act, this rationale...

-Livemint.com As India celebrates its 74th Independence Day, its citizens need to take a hard look at the relationship between their democratic rights and basic economic security While the need for instituting a set of fundamental political rights is generally recognized and enshrined in all democratic Constitutions, there has scarcely been any similar recognition of the need for a set of fundamental economic rights. On the contrary, serious theoretical reservations have been...