-The Hindu Top court hears plea seeking rations, food for labourers Scared, unemployed and hungry, migrant workers may just want to go home and will hardly care for the finer nuances of “national” and “mini” lockdowns imposed by the government on the populace, the Supreme Court said on Monday. “Whether it was the national lockdown in 2020 or mini lockdowns in 2021, psychologically the attitude of migrant workers remains the same — they...

-Livemint.com The production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme is a central government scheme that seeks to make India an efficient, equitable and resilient manufacturing hub, on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a self-reliant India. Mint explains: The production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme is a central government scheme that seeks to make India an efficient, equitable and resilient manufacturing hub, on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a self-reliant...

-Counterview.net Even as calling Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget “historic”, top international NGO Oxfam, pointing towards “some gaps” in it, “especially while addressing inequalities on the lines of caste, class, gender and occupation”, has regretted that the budget “does not address the urgent spending needs in the social sector, especially in health and education.” In a statement, Oxfam India quotes CEO stating that “the Union Budget 2021 has failed to address inequality...

-The Hindu Financial packages in place as early as March, court told The Centre took strong objection to averments made in the Supreme Court on Thursday that it would not have budged to protect borrowers from financial ruin triggered by the COVID-19 lockdown, had the court not intervened on time. Appearing before a Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said submissions like that were painted in “political colour”. Mr. Mehta...

Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...