-The Hindu Quarterly Employment Survey covered 10,593 firms across 9 sectors The All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey, in a report released on Monday, said that the overall employment numbers had increased by 29% from the base year of 2013-14. However, in the first quarter of this fiscal (April-June 2021), 27% of the establishments surveyed reported pandemic-related retrenchment. The report, released by Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav, covered 10,593 firms that employed more than...

-The Hindu Error is not in data but in government’s judgement: RJD MP Manoj K. Jha The Union government last week told the Supreme Court that the caste data enumerated in the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) of 2011 was “unusable”, but in 2016, the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India had informed the Standing Committee on Rural Development that 98.87% of the data on individual caste and religion was “error free”. In its...

-The Hindu A precise caste census is difficult, but the data will be useful to drive social policy The idea of a national caste census might be abhorrent when the stated policy is to strive for a casteless society, but it will be useful to establish statistical justification for preserving caste-based affirmative action programmes. It may also be a legal imperative, considering that courts want ‘quantifiable data’ to support the existing levels...

-The Hindu “It has suffered, and will suffer, both on account of completeness and accuracy of the data,” an affidavit filed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in the Supreme Court said. The government has made it clear in the Supreme Court that a caste census of the Backward Classes is “administratively difficult and cumbersome”. The Centre reasoned that even when the census of castes were taken in the pre-Independence period,...

-The Hindu India’s religious mix has been stable since 1951, says Pew Center study The religious composition of India’s population since Partition has remained largely stable, with both Hindus and Muslims, the two largest religious groups, showing not only a marked decline but also a convergence in fertility rates, according to a new study published by the Pew Research Center, a non-profit based in Washington DC. The study, based on data sourced from...