-The Hindu The recent PLFS data, which show a historic decline in manufacturing employment, make one fact plain — India desperately needs a comprehensive industrial policy, absent since 1991 The Union Budget suggests that the government has not recognised the need to create more manufacturing jobs. For the first time ever, manufacturing jobs fell in absolute terms between 2011-12 and 2017-18, to quote the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of the National...

-The Hindu They can be an effective tool for rainwater harvesting With an increased variability of monsoons and rapidly depleting groundwater tables, large parts of India are reeling under water stress. A number of peninsular regions like Bundelkhand, Vidarbha and Marathwada have been facing recurring drought-like situations. Given the enormity of the crisis, at a recent NITI Aayog meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi explicated the need to implement innovative water management measures,...

-Firstpost.com Satna: A chapati with a pinch of salt and some mustard oil is all that Madhu, a three-year-old girl from a hard-pressed tribal community in Madhya Pradesh, gets to eat on a regular basis. Milk and vegetables are rare luxuries that are available when her mother, Mamta, has enough savings to buy provisions from the village market. This mother and daughter are not alone in the deprivation. Madhu and Mamta are...

-The Hindu Business Line To tackle homelessness, the government should provide better incentives to developers to provide affordable housing Food, clothing and shelter are three basic human needs. Out of the three, shelter remains beyond the reach of 1.77 million people in India, accounting for 0.15 per cent of the nation’s population (Census 2011). Rights groups, however, say that the actual figure is at least three times higher. Consequently, a large number...

-The Hindu Country needs to double its efforts to control malnutrition Almost one in three Indian children under five years will still be stunted by 2022 going by current trends, according to an analysis of the country’s food and nutrition security released on Tuesday. Over the last decade, child stunting — which is a measure of chronic malnutrition — has reduced at a rate of about 1% per year, the slowest decline...