-Livemint.com Union Budget 2018 may be able to offer sops for big farmers but it would not be able to deal with the structural challenges facing India’s rural economy The results of the Gujarat elections, in which the opposition Congress outperformed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in rural constituencies, and the growing number of farmer agitations in the country have focused attention on rural India ahead of this year’s budget. But...

-The Hindu For millions hit by agricultural distress, the escape to construction jobs is grinding to a halt With the Union Budget to be presented on February 1, it is hoped that the Finance Minister will make a significantly higher allocation for investment in infrastructure. It is vital for addressing rural distress. The Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) informed us that ‘landlessness and dependence on manual casual labour for a livelihood...

-Livemint.com There cannot be a solution to the problem of low wage growth in rural India unless opportunities for getting decent and productive jobs are available outside agriculture One of the anomalies that stood out from the broad narrative of rural distress was the stubborn fact that rural wages were growing, not just in nominal but also in real, or inflation-adjusted terms. And if real rural wages were seeing higher growth, surely...

-Livemint.com Distress in rural economy is not limited only to the agrarian sector but has also spilled over to the larger economy with unemployment becoming a major challenge 2017 has been a bad year for the economy. The fact that the economy is in crisis, particularly the rural economy, is no longer a matter of statistics. The recent elections in Gujarat have laid bare the fissures in the rural economy that have...

-TheWire.in The model of development that was presented as a success story relies on patronising and providing incentives to large businesses while simultaneously suppressing wage incomes. By now, almost everyone in the country knows the one thing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the team around him excel in – the art of public relations and media management. This is the reason that the ‘Gujarat model’ of handling a state’s economy became such...