-The Hindu The archivist and activist on curating the oral history of the Narmada Bachao Andolan and its importance as a movement of the marginalised As an activist of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), Nandini Oza lived and worked among the people affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) for over a decade. Having participated in the movement and documented its oral history through the voices of its leaders, she felt it...

-Down to Earth The children, mostly girls, were rescued from a railway station  Child trafficking has seen a spurt in Odisha — especially in tribal-dominated districts of the state — following the resumption of train services amid the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.  At least 20 adolescents, mostly girls (18) aged 15-17, have been rescued by activists from non-profit Childline Foundation of India (CFI), from Berhampur railway station in Ganjam district from July...

-Down to Earth Farmers yet to be paid Rs 5,724 crore for claims made in 5 years since scheme launch The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (crop insurance scheme) may have benefitted some farmers but insurance companies surely made the most of it. In the five years since the scheme was launched, these companies received Rs 1,26,521 crore in premium payments and paid Rs 87,320 crore to farmers in loss claims — a...

The recently released quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data broadly confirms the dip in employment and jobs during the countrywide lockdown period, followed by a certain degree of recovery in the post-lockdown months last year as have been indicated by various survey-based studies and research papers. The quarterly bulletin on PLFS provides data on key employment and unemployment indicators i.e. Unemployment Rate (UR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Labour...

-The Hindu Industrial output growth halves from 28.6% in May to 13.6% in June Retail inflation cooled slightly to 5.6% in July, slipping below the central bank’s upper tolerance threshold of 6% for the first time in three months, even as industrial output growth halved from 28.6% in May to 13.6% in June, as base effects from the national lockdown of 2020 begin to fade. Food prices at the consumer level played a...