-The Indian Express According to the Central statistics Office, there were 24.95 crore households in India in 2011. If every household in the bottom 20 per cent is eligible for this income, this translates into a total expenditure of about Rs 3.6 lakh crore annually. When Congress president Rahul Gandhi announced that his party, if voted to power, would offer a minimum income of Rs 72,000 a year for the poorest 20...

-The Hindu Why the recent undermining of the credibility of India’s statistical output is especially regrettable Over the past two months, Indian national statistics and the organisations that administer them have faced a volley of criticism. In January, two independent members of the National Statistical Commission resigned in protest, over alleged suppression of economic data by the government. More recently, amidst growing scepticism regarding India’s official statistics, more than a hundred scholars...

-The Hindu Business Line The dismal quality of graduates is impacting the job market. But even high skilled workers are finding the going tough A big controversy has erupted over job creation under the Modi regime —in particular, over whether the unemployment rate in 2017-18 is, in fact, the highest in four decades as CMIE data as well as the officially undisclosed but reported in the press NSSO data seem to indicate. Further,...

-Scroll.in They observed that data unfavourable to the government was getting revised or suppressed on the basis of questionable methodologies. A group of economists and social scientists on Thursday urged the Indian government to restore the integrity of statistical organisations as their national and global reputation was “at stake”. Any data unfavourable to the government “seems to get revised or suppressed on the basis of some questionable methodology”, they said, citing some...

-The Hindu Business Line Govt’s Wellness Centres have identified over 37,000 patients, but can they be treated under Ayushman Bharat with their data not shared with NHA? The Union Health Ministry has identified thousands of new cancer patients, but is unable to treat them. Reason: Its own departments are not coordinating among themselves, and the patients are left high and dry. On February 21, the Ministry released startling statistics that it had identified...