-The Hindu The analysis is fraught with caveats and the interpretation of the Survey results calls for caution Last week, the Ministry of Labour and Employment released the results of a new Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) for April-June 2021 for the organised (formal) sector. It represents establishments (or units) employing ten or more workers. The Surveyed sectors were manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurant, Information Technology/Business Process Outsourcing (IT/BPO),...

-Down to Earth The government’s flip-flop on stockholding limits does not help pulses’ pricing issues The Union government’s decision on July 2, 2021, to impose stock limits on pulses till October 31 has once again fuelled the long-held perception that the country’s food policies are not even consistent, let alone being relevant. On June 5, 2020, the Union government issued the Essential Commodities (Amendment) (ECA) Ordinance, 2020, which was later legislated into an...

The newly released Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India (NSS 77th Round) establishes the fact that the farm households are more and more relying on wage incomes instead of 'net incomes from crop cultivation' for their livelihoods. In Marxian lexicon, proletarisation (a term that we can loosely use for depeasantisation) refers to the process in which the farmers/ tillers are...

-TheWire.in A recent Survey in 16 states and union territories suggests has revealed that there has been a catastrophic slide in literacy among children from poor and marginalised sections. However, there seems to be no plan to help them. October is the month for new beginnings, not least for scores of children who have been unable to attend school in its physical form for the last year and a half. The pandemic...

-Business Standard Centre assessing appropriate price at which subsidy should resume The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is evaluating a threshold at which the subsidy on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG or cooking gas) will be reinstated. According to a senior government official in the know, a Survey is currently being conducted to determine the price at which maximum consumers will keep buying domestic cylinders. One of the options also being considered...