The increase in organized sector employment (i.e. in establishments employing 10 or more workers) in the second quarter was much higher as compared to that in the first quarter of 2017-18. The seventh round of the Quarterly Report on Employment Scenario in selected sectors (as on 1st October, 2017), which was released in March this year, confirms this. The Labour Bureau’s latest report says that during the period 1st April to...

-PTI Researchers from Harvard and NASA have shown that in October and November about half of all pollution in Delhi can be attributed to agricultural fires on some days Boston: Agricultural fires are to blame for about half of the pollution experienced in Delhi in October and November, a peak stubble burning season in Punjab, a Harvard study has found using satellite data from NASA. Many farmers in northwest India typically burn abundant...

-Hindustan Times Non-farm jobs was positive despite negative jobs growth in 2014-15 and 2015-16 The KLEM database released by RBI on 27 March, 2018 gives employment statistics for the Indian economy till 2015-16. It shows that total employment shrank by 0.2% and 0.1% in India in 2014-15 and 2015-16. These statistics raise disturbing questions. India’s Gross Value Added (GVA) growth increased continuously between 2012-13 and 2015-16. Why did employment growth go into negative...

-Hindustan Times An examination of RBI data indicates that peasants turning to construction are increasingly at the same income levels as farming, in probably more challenging conditions. Shifting agricultural workers to remunerative non-farm jobs, is India’s central challenge on the employment front. The construction sector has been a mainstay of non-farm jobs over the last two decades. However, these jobs are increasingly losing their remunerative potential. The KLEM (Capital with a K, Labour,...

-Livemint.com Farmers continue to be vulnerable to frequent episodes of losses that neither the state nor the markets have been able to mitigate The dramatic long march to Mumbai involving thousands of distressed farmers on 12 March is a remarkable feat of peaceful protest against the state, given its apathy towards farmers’ distress as well as its failures in safeguarding tribal land rights. However, what is surprisingly missing in this poignant narrative...