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...

-TheIndiaForum.in The uncritical tone of the NITI Aayog’s recent report on the gig economy in India and its belief that platformisation will create an inclusive working environment is, at best, credulous, and, at worst, a deliberate attempt to ignore the erosion of workers’ rights, security, and welfare. In August 2022, more than a hundred workers in Bengaluru working for online food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy went on strike. Echoing central trade...

-TheWire.in An investigation into the scheme's operations in eight districts by the state accountant general has revealed leakages in several areas of the scheme, from the identification of beneficiaries to the production amounts, transport and quality control. New Delhi: A recent report by Madhya Pradesh’s accountant general has revealed large-scale corruption in several stages of the state’s free nutrition scheme for women and children – the Take Home Ration (THR) scheme, according...

-TheWire.in The bargain between companies and their 'employees' must become more equitable. The continuation of the Russia-Ukraine war is raising the fear of an imminent stagflation (a combination of inflation and unemployment led by a low growth). Worldwide inflation numbers are on the rise. Most sources of data are suggesting a higher inflationary regime. In March 2022, the US, the largest economy in the world, recorded a 41-year high inflation of 8.1%....

-Down to Earth The administration, however, has not compensated other Mitanins’ work adequately and has thus been misusing their sense of social commitment 50-year-old Saraswati Kaushik’s day starts at 5 am. After preparing food for the family and an hour or two of farm work, she goes for home visits in her ‘para’ (locality) to check on pregnant mothers, infants, kids below five years of age, elderly people in need of treatment...