Contrary to the rising economic distress on the ground since the last few years, the official press release related to the fourth Annual Report on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) at first glance seems to give a rosy picture about the employment situation in India.  Defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force, the unemployment rate in usual status (principal activity status + subsidiary economic activity status)...

-Down to Earth Southwest monsoon could switch into a drought-prone mode, lasting decades in the future India witnessed repeated multi-year droughts over the last thousand years, predominately before 1871, a new study has predicted. This contrasts with the drought history of the post-1871 era. The country saw only one instance of a THRee-year-long drought during this period, from 1985-1987, the study published September 19, 2022, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy...

-Newsclick.in After Lekhpal exam papers were leaked, the big challenge before the UP CM now is to peacefully conduct the UPSSSC preliminary exams. Uttar Pradesh is infamous for paper leaks and court cases in government recruitment jobs. During the last tenure of Yogi Adityanath (2017-22), there were umpteen court cases on exam paper leaks and delayed exams. His second term, which started in March this year, is also following the same trend...

-Newsclick.in Privatisation of grain procurement and cap on procurement subsidies are among the ideas being floated. Amid a slew of worrying news on the food grain front, the Narendra Modi-led government not only appears to be strangely cool, but it is also THRowing up bizarre proposals to change the whole procurement-distribution system. This could be the famous ‘using a crisis as an opportunity’ mode of thinking that has led to catastrophic effects...

-Scroll.in A rise in work allocation THRough the pandemic saw an enthusiastic response. Now, delayed wages and reduced allocation forces workers out of the district again. Bardha Girdhar had to wait more than six months to get Rs 2,976 he had earned for digging trenches in Nandurbar. A farmer who own a patch of land of a little over two acres in the district, Giridhar spends some part of the year growing...