-The Hindu It will complicate payment system, may lead to a reduction in funding, say experts. The Centre has asked the States to split wage payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme into separate categories for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and others from this financial year. Workers’ rights advocates said this will unnecessarily complicate the payment system, and expressed fears that it may lead to a reduction...

-The Hindu In the U.S., India and Brazil, messianic populism, polarisation and insularity have made the pandemic that much worse A year and counting into the greatest health crisis the world has faced in over a century we can identify one overwhelming factor that separates the countries that have done relatively well from those that have been complete disasters:Autocrcy elected autocrats. By any measure the most dismal performers in the democratic world...

-The Hindu Uday Kotak highlights risks of not spending, says a lot will hinge on States’ approach to reopening. India’s economy urgently needs increased fiscal spending from the government to support businesses that have suffered stress from the COVID-19-related disruptions, as well as households and individuals worst hit by the pandemic, CII president Uday Kotak said on Wednesday. “I think the time has come for the fisc [fiscal authorities] to do a lot...

-The New Indian Express At the age of 27, K Rajitha, who grows 10 different crops in her one acre of land at Naguluppalapadu, has become a role model for the local farming community. ONGOLE: At the age of 27, K Rajitha, who grows 10 different crops in her one acre of land at Naguluppalapadu, has become a role model for the local farming community. Reason: She has adopted the Zero Budget...

-The Hindu The universalisation of social security remains an unfulfilled aspiration in the new code on social security As COVID-19 destroys lives and livelihoods, an unprepared government has rendered low-paid, informal workers, who constitute 91% of the workforce, totally hapless, pushing them further into poverty. Imagine if these same informal workers had social security (including free basic curative care in public clinics and hospitals, the elderly had old age pensions, the dying...