-Down to Earth Panel headed by economists S Mahendra Dev also recommends linking wages to Consumer Price Index-Rural as cushion against inflation A committee of experts set up by the Union rural development ministry has recommended that the wages paid to unskilled agricultural labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) should be the minimum wage fixed by the respective state or the current wage as per the consumer...

-Live Mint Panel recommends wages under the MGNREGS be made equal to or higher than the minimum wage determined by state govts New Delhi: A high-level panel constituted by the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government has recommended that wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) be made equal to or higher than the minimum wage determined by state governments. The panel, headed by S. Mahendra Dev, director...

-The Business Standard   Unlike consumer prices, wholesale inflation provides little comfort If the consumer price index (CPI) numbers for May, released last week, provided some comfort about softening inflation, the wholesale price index (WPI) numbers for the same month, released on Monday, did just the opposite. Headline inflation went up from 5.2 per cent year on year in April to six per cent in May, the highest, by a whisker, since December....

-The Business Standard   Food articles inflation dips to 8.64% compared to 9.9% in March Wholesale Price Index-based Inflation fell by 0.5 percentage points to 5.2 per cent in April from 5.7 per cent in March, providing some relief to a new government amid other deteriorating macroeconomic numbers such as retail inflation and industrial output. All three major components of the index - food, fuel and manufactured goods - recorded moderation in inflation on...

-Down to Earth   Poverty line figures hide people's aspirations There are lies, damn lies and statistics, American author Mark Twain once wrote echoing a similar statement by the British statesman Benjamin Disraeli. Statistics aim to reveal a lot, but they conceal vital information. This concealing tendency of statistics explains much of the flak received by the Planning Commission when it released figures on the poverty line. In 2012, the commission announced that...