The year 2022 was supposed to mark the recovery of the Indian economy from the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns of the preceding two years. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February pushed up prices of food, fuel and fertilizer worldwide. In India consumer price inflation, which had declined to under 5 percent in the September-November period of 2021, has steadily increased, staying above 6 percent throughout 2022.    What happened to rural incomes in 2022? An...

- Press release by Right to Food campaign dated 30 December, 2022 The Right to Food campaign has demanded that the government should restore the grain entitlements granted under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). On 23 December, 2022 the Union government announced that it would discontinue the PMGKAY from 1 January, 2023, thus halving the ration entitlements of eligible people.  Under the National Food Security Act, 2013, (NFSA), all priority category ration cardholders...

-Moneycontrol.com The free and subsidised grains are an implicit income transfer to people and ensure basic protection from starvation The distribution of free grains through the Public Distribution System (PDS) under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) has been one of the main relief measures undertaken by the Indian government in response to the Economic distress brought about by the Covid pandemic. From April 2020 until the end of 2022,...

- Deccan Herald Covid-19 reverse migration of labour added to joblessness A rise in self-employment and unpaid family labour three years into the Covid-19 pandemic even as wage rates fell is an indication that rural distress has risen, the economist Santosh Mehrotra writes. Economic distress was on an upward trajectory even before the Pandemic and the sudden arrival of millions of reverse migrants in 2020 added to the stock of unemployed people...

-Moneycontrol.com Globally, central banks have been increasing interest rates to fight inflation. The global economy will bear the brunt of past monetary policy actions in 2023, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monthly bulletin said on December 20. "Emerging market economies (EMEs) appear even more vulnerable, having battled currency depreciations and capital outflows in addition to slowing growth and high inflation," Bulletin said. Globally, central banks have been increasing interest rates to fight inflation. RBI...