-Livemint.com The present government has incentivized employers to comply with the EPF law by making their contribution for three years to expand formal sector employment Surjit Bhalla and Tirtha Das’ (B-D, hereafter) background paper, titled All You Wanted To Know About Jobs In India, But Were Afraid To Ask, is now available on the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) website (goo.gl/Y5CLtF)—a welcome initiative. It claims: “While there are no official employment...

-The Hindu The former Chief Statistician on calculating GDP back series, on indicators of development, and the fall of the rupee The draft of the back series GDP data, which was made public by the government recently, is unlikely to change drastically even if other methods of calculation are used, says former Chief Statistician of India, Pronab Sen. The noted economist discusses GDP, employment and poverty data; the value of the rupee;...

-TheWire.in The new periodic labour force surveys, while welcome, will create a situation where there would be no data system to compare the present with the past. In a recent interview, Prime Minister Narendra Modi apparently said, “more than a lack of jobs, the issue is a lack of data on jobs”. For those of us who have been using the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data on employment and unemployment for...

-Macroscan.org An analysis of overall trends in the structure of employment, differentiated between men and women, between rural and urban workers, and across different sectors. With an emphasis on using age-cohort analysis, the dynamics of change in the employment structure are elucidated. The paper looks at changes in the overall size of the labour force and in work participation rates between 1993–94 and 2011–12 and talks about changes in employment structure...

-The Hindu The Delhi High Court order striking down the Begging Act heeds the Constitution’s transformative nature In 1871, the colonial regime passed the notorious Criminal Tribes Act. This law was based upon the racist British belief that in India there were entire groups and communities that were criminal by birth, nature, and occupation. The Act unleashed a reign of terror, with its systems of surveillance, police reporting, the separation of families,...