-Newsclick.in Rice meant for the poor will be sold at subsidised rates to privately-owned ethanol distilleries. The industries will be given cheap loans and exempted from Environmental Clearances. Is the Modi government subsidising the rich at the cost of the poor by diverting foodgrains meant for the most impoverished sections of the population to private industries for producing alcohol for India’s ethanol blended petrol programme? There’s more: For manufacturing ethanol, foodgrains will not...
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‘Excess deaths’ in Kerala 1.6 times official COVID-19 toll -Srinivasan Ramani
-The Hindu 2021 deaths surge reverses decline in mortality After registering a lower number of deaths overall in 2020 compared to 2019, Kerala witnessed a significant INCrease in the overall death count due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, resulting in an estimated 15,222 “excess deaths” till May 31, month-wise data from the Civil Registration System show. The overall “excess deaths” for the period April 2020-May 2021 were 13,868,...
More »Tamil Nadu’s revenue, fiscal deficits understated in 2018-19: CAG
-The Hindu There was a total expenditure of ₹1.34 crore without appropriation by legislature Tamil Nadu’s revenue deficit of ₹23,459.44 crore during 2018-19 was understated by ₹3,757.23 crore and fiscal deficit by ₹1,300.49 crore primarily owing to short transfers totalling ₹1,366 crore towards various reserve funds, such as sinking fund and guarantee redemption fund, according to the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s report on State finances for the year ended March 2019. There were...
More »The rural economy can jump-start a revival -Himanshu
-The Hindu The Government needs to reverse its neglect and policy missteps as key indicators show the sector has resilience The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic could be slowly receding with a decline in the official estimates of daily infections and deaths. The economy is also very gradually getting back to normal, with many States beginning to ease some of the restrictions imposed in their lockdowns. However, the challenge of an...
More »Kerala’s poor is UP’s rich — how access to basic services varies in Indian states -Vidya Mahambare and Sowmya Dhanaraj
-ThePrint.in West Bengal and Rajasthan have remarkably improved the delivery of basic services to their poorest 20% population between 2005-06 and 2015-16, NFHS data show. The lives of asset poor in India’s major states, as shown in an earlier article, have improved between 2005-06 and 2015-16 in terms of owning common durables. Asset poor are defined as the bottom 20 per cent of a state’s population in terms of durable asset ownership. It...
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