-The Hindu Business Line Employment increased by about four lakh in the January to March 2022 quarter as against the previous quarter in nine selected sectors of the economy. The Fourth Round of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) by the Labour and Employment Ministry revealed that the estimated employment increased to 3.18 crore in the fourth quarter of 2021-22 in the selected sectors as compared to 3.14 crore in the third quarter of...

-Livemint.com Tackle deficiencies of capital mobilization, access to state provisions and women’s participation to boost FPCs across India. In 2017, the Indian government reaffirmed its commitment to reduce rural distress among nearly 93 million farming households through efforts to double farmers’ income. What has been remarkable is the emergence of farmer producer companies (FPCs) as a viable way of supporting this approach. The last two years have been tumultuous. Pro-market legislation introduced in...

-The Telegraph At present, India has 195 million households with ration cards (nearly 794 million people), lower than the beneficiaries we intended to target in 2013 Inordinate delays in carrying out the census exercise are depriving millions of Indians who rely on rations for their subsistence. The exclusion of the poorest from the public distribution system in the pre and post-pandemic years was first flagged by the economists, Jean Drèze and Reetika...

-The Telegraph Sanjay Mohanty, professor of population health at International Institute of Population Sciences, says steady fall in total health spending in proportion to GDP is 'worrying' India’s per capita healthcare expenditure at constant prices has remained near-stagnant despite increases in government spending and decreases in household spending on healthcare over a six-year period, the latest national health accounts report has shown. India’s per capita total healthcare expenditure has changed little over that...

-Down to Earth 29% increase in suicides by farm labourers from 2019  The National Crime Record Bureau has released an alarming statistic. An agricultural labourer died by suicide every two hours and a total 1,64,033 people died of suicide in India in 2021. The number amounts to 5,563 suicides by farm labourers, which is a 9 per cent increase from 2020 and a 29 per cent increase from 2019. The highest numbers were recorded...