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 survey picked Nagapattinam, Madurai and Tiruppur specifically to see how it benefits women in various sectors, such as agriculture, trade and industry. The survey was conducted in August with more than a 1000 frequent travellers and a report was released by the government on Saturday   Chennai: A survey by Tamil Nadu’s planning commission has revealed that the government’s flagship scheme providing free bus travel for women in state-owned buses...

-The Hindu Allow more flexibility at the ground level, says internal study commissioned by the Ministry of Rural Development An internal study commissioned by the Ministry of Rural Development has argued for decentralisation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), allowing for more “flexibility” at the ground level.  The Ministry recently made public the report of the sixth Common Review Mission which surveyed seven States — Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh,...

-Hindustan Times The CCI accused Google of reducing the ability and incentive of device manufacturers to develop and sell devices operating on alternative versions of Android by making pre-installation of Google's proprietary apps conditional. Search engine giant Google on Friday called the ₹1,337.76 crore fine imposed by Competition Commission of India a ‘major setback for Indian consumers and businesses’. The tech behemoth said it would review the decision to evaluate next steps,...

-Newsclick.in Farmers' organisations said that the prices of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, fuel and others have spiked the cost of production, but the paddy MSP has been increased by only Rs 1 per kg. Chennai: Paddy farmers in Tamil Nadu are disappointed with the recently fixed minimum support price (MSP) for paddy. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, on August 30, announced the paddy prices for the upcoming procurement season of 2022-23. It...