-Livemint.com The government had to lower the import duty on edible oils several times in recent months to tame food inflation NEW DELHI: The government is set to launch an oilseed mission to boost domestic production of oilseeds and reduce import dependence, said NITI Aayog member, agriculture, Ramesh Chand. India currently makes around ₹1 trillion worth of edible oil imports every year or nearly half of its demand. The proposed scheme was devised after...

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)...

-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...

-Newslaundry.com The finance minister asked a valid question. Here’s the answer. Last Tuesday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked India’s corporate honchos why they were not investing in the Indian economy. “I want to hear from India Inc,” she said, “what’s stopping you when countries and industries abroad think this is the place to be.” This is a valid question. In this piece, we will try and piece together why India Inc, as corporate India...

-The Hindu The affidavit goes against the 2011 recommendation of National Commission for Scheduled Castes With the Supreme Court awaiting the Union government’s present position on including Dalit Christians as members of Scheduled Castes (SCs), the Narendra Modi government’s latest standing on this aspect has been to reject any such proposition, according to an affidavit filed by the government in November 2019, which also said Dalits who converted to Buddhism could not...