-TheWire.in More than 550 jobs were lost each day in the last four years in India, placing it behind Bangladesh and Vietnam in terms of job creation. The sheer pressure of poverty means that job creation will always be high on the agenda of any government. In India, significant public resources have been invested to encash the demographic dividend and prevent it from becoming a burden. But the results have been far...

-Livemint.com Many urban workers go back to their villages instead of settling in cities with their families, a study shows One of the biggest announcements after Narendra Modi assumed office was the announcement of the smart cities project, which involves overhauling of urban infrastructure in 100 Indian cities. In April, Niti Aayog chairman Arvind Panagariya predicted India’s urbanization rate to increase to over 60% in the next 30 years, assuming a 7-9%...

-The Hindu IR8, the high-yielding rice variety helped India fight famine, turns 50 this month In 1967, when a 29-year-old N. Subba Rao sowed a semidwarf variety of rice in over 2,000 hectares in Atchanta, West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, he wouldn't have thought he would be part of a revolution in rice cultivation. What Dr. Rao sowed in his farm was IR-8, a rice variety developed by the International Rice Research...

-The Economic Times "Demonetisation in a booming economy is like shooting at the tyres of a racing car," says development economist Jean Drèze . A leading advocate of welfare policies, Drèze who was a member of the National Advisory Council during the UPA regime, tells ET that the sudden move to demonetize high-value currency notes has created a scary situation for people who live on the margin of subsistence, and that...

-Ideas for India In an earlier article, Pronab Sen, Country Director, IGC India Central, examined some of the economic consequences of the recent demonetisation of Rs. 1,000 and 500 notes in India, and concluded that the potential damage could be substantial, both in terms of growth and equity. In this article, focussing on solutions, he contends that the government now needs to realise that credit for production purposes is at least as,...