-Newsclick.in Women’s work participation has dramatically declined, unemployment is at an all-time high and they often get half the wage of what men get for same work, shows the latest labour force survey report. The recently released Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for 2017-18 reveals a striking decline in women’s participation in the workforce. Only about 22% of women of working age (defined as 15 years of age or more) were gainfully...

In a recent blog post, Columbia University professor Arvind Panagariya mentions that the critics of the present Prime Minister of India failed to underscore ‘employment rate’ -- flip side of unemployment rate -- that stood at nearly 94 percent according to the report on Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18. A recent article by Dr. Vikas Rawal and Prachi Bansal, however, points out that in order to understand the problem of joblessness...

-Hindustan Times The global population could reach its peak around the end of the current century, with an estimated population of 11 bn, according to the UN report. New Delhi: The world’s population will increase to 9.7 billion by 2050, going up by 2 bn from the earlier 7.7 bn, shows a new United Nations report launched on Monday. The global population could reach its peak around the end of the current...

-The Hindu Major drop seen in open defecation India has made great gains in providing basic sanitation facilities since the start of the millennium, accounting for almost two thirds of the 650 million people globally who stopped practising open defecation between 2000 and 2017. However, a monitoring report by UN organisations released on Tuesday also shows that there has been absolutely no growth in the population with access to piped water facilities over...

-Livemint.com To keep up with the pressure of making headline fiscal deficit numbers look good, the government has increasingly resorted to off-budget financing for revenue as well as capital spending As with every other Union budget in the country, all eyes will focus on the fiscal deficit number that India’s new finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman presents on 5 July in her maiden budget speech. But for many investors and analysts, how that...