-Newsclick.in It is bizarre that the recent GDP numbers are being celebRATed even as there are no jobs, workers wages are frozen and farmers are demanding better prices. There is much celebRATion in government circles and, of course, in the mainstream media, that in the first quarter of 2018-19 (April to June 2018), the GDP growth RATe picked up to touch 8.2% compared with the same quarter last year (April to June...
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Why reports of agriculture's demise are greatly exaggeRATed -Dipti Jain and Sayantan Bera
-Livemint.com Farming activities comprise more than half of the total average monthly income for agricultural households, as per the latest survey by Nabard Bengaluru/ New Delhi: Farmers may be looking for alternative avenues of income, but it is too soon to write off the significance of agriculture in rural India, data from the recently released Nabard All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS) shows. An initial reading of the survey findings seems to...
More »Jobs growth claims in India: a fact check -R Nagaraj
-Livemint.com The present government has incentivized employers to comply with the EPF law by making their contribution for three years to expand formal sector employment Surjit Bhalla and Tirtha Das’ (B-D, hereafter) background paper, titled All You Wanted To Know About Jobs In India, But Were Afraid To Ask, is now available on the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) website (goo.gl/Y5CLtF)—a welcome initiative. It claims: “While there are no official employment...
More »Pronab Sen, former Chief Statistician of India, interviewed by TCA Sharad Raghavan
-The Hindu The former Chief Statistician on calculating GDP back series, on indicators of development, and the fall of the rupee The draft of the back series GDP data, which was made public by the government recently, is unlikely to change drastically even if other methods of calculation are used, says former Chief Statistician of India, Pronab Sen. The noted economist discusses GDP, employment and poverty data; the value of the rupee;...
More »Madhav Gadgil, noted ecologist, interviewed by PRAThima Nandakumar (TheWeek.in)
-TheWeek.in Noted ecologist Madhav Gadgil blames the “law-flouting” state government for the devastation in Kerala. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), headed by Gadgil in 2011, had suggested measures to preserve the ecologically frail Ghats. But, the Kerala government, like the other five states, chose to reject the report. Having suffered such devastation, Gadgil feels that the state should survey the “ecologically sensitive zones” that have been compromised due to...
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