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...

Urgent action needed to curb deadly air pollution in South Asia A new report by the World Bank states that Nine out of the world’s 10 cities with the worst air pollution are in South Asia. Ambient air pollution is a public health crisis for South Asia, not only imposing high economic costs but also causing an estimated 2 million premature deaths each year. The health impacts of air pollution range...

Following the pandemic, the income of the bottom 50 per cent of the population is estimated at 13 percent of national income and 3 percent of total wealth Apoorva Mahendru, Kanishk Gomes, Mayurakshi Dutta, Noopur, Pravas Ranjan Mishra Oxfam International's annual inequality report makes for stark reading. The India supplement, part of the main report, states that the top 1 percent of Indians own nearly 40.6 percent of the total wealth in...

-Mercom India The Union Cabinet has approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an initial outlay of Rs.19,744 crore ($2.38 billion). The policy decision is meant to facilitate demand, production, utilization and export of green hydrogen. The largest portion of the outlay, Rs.17,490 crore, has been earmarked for strategic interventions in the transition to green hydrogen. Also called SIGHT, this sub-component envisages financial Incentives for the domestic manufacture of electrolyzers and...

-Business Standard Dept in advanced inter-ministerial talks; schemes for bicycles, footwear to follow The industry department is in the advanced stage of inter-ministerial consultation for launching a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for both traditional and mechanical toys worth Rs 3,500 crore, which will be followed by PLI schemes for bicycles and footwear. “Discussions for PLI for toys are at an advanced stage. PLIs for bicycles and footwear are also under formulation,” a government...