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...

On 6 February, 2023 Southern Turkey and the adjoining areas in Syria were hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake followed by several aftershocks. The tremors have flattened buildings and destroyed roads and other infrastructure. At least 35,000 casualties (UPDATE) have occurred across Turkey and Syria, with the vast majority being in the former nation. A news report cited the Turkish environment minister saying that 24,921 buildings across the region had collapsed. What...

The draft bill allows insurance companies the freedom to sell different financial products Mint The government is likely to introduce the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill 2022 in the monsoon session of Parliament to bring deep reforms in the insurance sector, including a provision for composite insurance licence and flexibility in entry barriers, two people aware of the development said. According to them, stakeholder consultation on the draft bill is expected to be...

-Hindustan Times The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Centre on a petition calling for a uniform age of marriage of 18 years be fixed for all women, regardless of their religion or personal Laws. The plea also urged the court to end the “discrimination” existing between genders on the age of marriage by lowering the age for men to get married from 21 years to be at...

-The Hindu BMS chief Hiranmay Pandya said workers face low wages, lack of job security and social security benefits, and had to suffer poor working conditions this year On the second day of the Asia Pacific Regional Meeting of the International Labour Organisation (APRM of ILO), representatives of workers and employers from India on Wednesday highlighted the employment situation in the country. While employers hailed the Union government’s steps to “help” workers...