-Networkideas.org The basic income scheme that is in the air these days, which amounts to handing over a certain sum of money to every household to ensure that it reaches a threshold cash income, is an extremely flawed scheme. Instead of enjoining upon the state the obligation to provide essential goods and services like food, education, and health, to its citizens, it absolves the State of all such responsibility, once it...

-The Hindu Proposals will impact Central Budget and those presented by States for 2020-21, says N.K. Singh The 15th Finance Commission will not alter its approach on solely using the 2011 Census for population figures in its calculations for allocations to States, Chairman N.K. Singh said in an interview. However, he added that other measures would be included that would ensure that States that have performed well by controlling population growth would not...

-The Hindu Employment opportunities, formal jobs and the labour force are all shrinking The jobs situation in India does not reflect a crisis, but it is a matter of serious concern. A crisis is understood as an emergency that demands immediate attention, without which we could see a calamity of sorts. There is no immediate calamity of any kind on hand. But there is a deeply insidious problem at work in the...

-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...

-Newsclick.in Dozens of people die every year in a city like Delhi because of the adverse weather conditions. The 70th Republic Day of India was celebrated as usual with fervour throughout the country. Various sections of the people have written elaborately in the media about the relevance of the day, and about the underlying principles of liberty, equality and fraternity in the Indian Constitution. Much has been stated about all these three important...