KEY TRENDS   • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...

-The Hindu ‘Commercial banks may have to raise deposit rates more to meet a surge in credit demand; while banks have swiftly transmitted increases to lending rates, deposit rates have been laggards for most’ Under the backdrop of a highly uncertain global environment caused by globalisation of inflation, energy and food shortages, and synchronised tightening of monetary policy worldwide, the Indian economy was exhibiting signs of a gradual strengthening of the growth...

Jharkhand's government schools have a massive teacher shortage, a survey by Gyan Vigyan Samiti Jharkhand has found. The survey was conducted in 138 primary and upper primary schools between September and October 2022 to assess their condition after the Covid-19 pandemic. Jharkhand's school system was shut for two years, among the longest in the world. Teachers told the surveyors they felt that most students had forgotten how to read and...

-NDTV.com The survey focussed on government primary and upper-primary schools where at least 50% of the children enrolled come from scheduled caste (SC) or scheduled tribe (ST) families. New Delhi: Schools in Jharkhand are struggling with abysmal infrastructure, low attendance, a shortage of teachers, and inadequate funding after the Covid pandemic, a recent survey of 138 primary and upper-primary schools revealed. In a majority of these schools, teachers felt that "most" pupils...

-Centre for Financial Accountability Jawabdehi Yatra organised by Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) along with 80 other organisations in Rajasthan is making history. Rajiv Gandhi once said that only 30% of the government funds reach the ultimate beneficiary.  The government machinery in many states is seen as uncaring and unaccountable.  There are various reasons, mainly shortage of staff poor training, large-scale outsourcing and also insensitivity among a section of the employees and...