-Livemint.com The Centre’s plan to pay off food subsidy arrears is likely to distort our GDP readings for multiple years A puzzle of sorts has arisen—again—in India’s official gross domestic product (GDP) estimates. They don’t meet the smell test. Back in 2015, the Central Statistics Office’s practice of using ‘single deflation’ instead of ‘double deflation’ during a period of falling commodity prices had distorted growth prints, as per our analysis. This time, too,...

-The New Indian Express The total number of CAG reports relating to central government ministries and departments came down from 55 in 2015 to just 14 in 2020, a fall of nearly 75%. NEW DELHI: The number of reports brought out by the country’s top audit body, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, has come down sharply in the past five years, raising concerns that the government’s financial accountability is not...

-Hindustan Times Women are not dropping out. They are being pushed out by the lack of demand for their labour. There has been movement out of agriculture into informal and casual jobs, where the work is sporadic, and often less than 30 days at a stretch. The new modern sector opportunities, especially in high value-added service sectors, mostly accrue to men. Why is women’s employment declining in India? The thrust of the...

-TheWire.in The mass exodus of migrant workers from cities after the nationwide lockdown has amplified the housing crisis for migrant workers in cities. ‘Low-income migrants’ in cities have always subsumed under the blanket, but arguably vague, term ‘urban poor’. This categorisation overlooks the mobility dimension of migrant workers’ lives where they are constantly moving between places in search of work, following capital. The government’s own estimates also indicate that with each passing...

-TheLeaflet.in The primary question to ask is whether any existing law requires citizens to possess certain documents or to register as proof or condition of citizenship. There exists no such law or requirement under the citizenship laws in India, writes MOHAMMAD WASIM. IN the ever-shifting landscape of the meaning and scope of citizenship, one feature has remained immutable—that citizenship is the bedrock of a gamut of other rights. Citizenship confers superior rights...