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...

-Hindustan Times The umbrella body of Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs) in Delhi have issued a charter of demands seeking a more ‘liveable, breathable and commutable’ city. The umbrella body of Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs) in Delhi have come up with a ‘People’s Manifesto’ for the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, issuing a charter of demands seeking a more “liveable, breathable and commutable” city. The manifesto issued by United RWAs Joint Action...

-Press release by World Bank dated November 14, 2022 NEW DELHI: A new World Bank report estimates that India will need to invest $840 billion over the next 15 years—or an average of $55 billion per annum—into urban infrastructure if it is to effectively meet the needs of its fast-growing urban population. The report, titled “Financing India’s Urban Infrastructure Needs: Constraints to Commercial Financing and Prospects for Policy Action” underlines the...

One is almost certain to hear this from an economist that if something is available at free of cost or at a subsidised rate thanks to government intervention, then people tend to overuse or overconsume such goods/ commodities. So, the best solution is to create a market for such 'almost freely available' or 'highly subsidised' goods or commodities. Once people start paying to use or consume such goods/ commodities, they...

-IndiaSpend.com While the EU says such a tax is essential to push industries to control greenhouse gas emissions, India claims this targets developing countries unfairly. New Delhi: Last week, Indian environment minister Prakash Javadekar opposed the European Union's (EU) plan to levy an additional 'carbon border tax' on imports from countries such as India that do not have strict norms for controlling industrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Earlier, on March 10, 2021, the...