-IndiaSpend.com Mumbai: Members of Parliament (MP) in the 16th Lok Sabha utilised 85% of the developmental funds they were allocated, leaving 15% unutilised--Rs 1,806.08 crore of the total amount of Rs 12,051.36 crore, a remainder larger than the Rs 1,700 crore that the Tamil Nadu government will spend to build 100,000 houses for people displaced by Cyclone Gaja. MPs from Meghalaya, Delhi, Chandigarh, Gujarat and Sikkim led the country in utilising their...

  Growth in rural wages not only indicates economic prosperity of the masses, it is also considered important so as to generate effective demand for goods and services, which is produced by various sectors of the economy. When money becomes available in the hands of rural workers due to government spending on programmes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), it generates demand for commodities. The production of commodities...

-The Hindu A new survey ahead of elections shows lack of jobs is single biggest worry Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, a public opinion survey in 12 states has found that political parties are the most distrusted political institutions in India. It also found that one in five of those surveyed felt that unemployment is the single biggest issue facing the country today. The survey, Politics and Society between Elections 2019, found...

-NDTV Supreme Court told the Home Ministry to give wide publicity of the nodal officers' contact details so that Kashmiris who need help can approach them easily New Delhi: The Supreme Court today directed 10 states and the centre to ensure Kashmiris living across the country do not face social boycott, harassment or attacks, days after the Pulwama terror attack. The 10 states are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,...

-The Hindu There needs to be robust infrastructure for official statistics so that governments do not suppress inconvenient truths Over the past two weeks, headlines have focussed on declining employment between 2011-12 and 2016-17; loss of jobs under the National Democratic Alliance government, particularly post-demonetisation; and the government’s refusal to release a report using the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) documenting this decline, leading to resignations of two members of the National...