The Niti Aayog recently released its National Multidimensional Poverty Index 2023, according to which the poverty headcount ratio declined from 24.85 percent in 2015-16 to 14.96 percent in 2019-21. In absolute numbers this translates to 135 million people exiting multidimensional poverty in this time period. In addition, a few days earlier, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released its own Multidimensional Poverty Index, which in a press note said that,...

-Newsclick.in The yawning merchandise trade deficit is occurring not because of any economic boom but in the midst of creeping industrial stagnation. India’s current account deficit for the second quarter (July-September) of 2022-23 has reached a massive $36.4 billion, which is 4.4% of the gross domestic product, higher than at any time in the last nine years. It is only in October-December 2012 that the absolute level of the current account deficit...

-Newsclick.in The sharp and apparently intriguing fall in industrial production in October, and feeble post-Covid recovery, points to a deep-rooted malaise in the Indian economy. There has been much discussion in public about the index of industrial production (IIP) for October 2022 being 4% lower than the index for October 2021; and quite rightly so, since no obvious explanations like a Covid-induced lockdown or even its residual lingering effects can be adduced...

-Newsclick.in There is need to build up self-reliance by nurturing the fertiliser CPSEs, rather than dismantling them through disinvestment and privatisation, read the PCPSPS statement. New Delhi: Amid concerns over global availability and growing demand for fertilisers, as well India’s dependence on urea import, the People's Commission on Public Sector and Public Services (PCPSPS) has called for a national fertiliser policy, consistent with the long-term food security strategy in India. “The national fertiliser...

-Newsclick.in World capitalism is entering a new phase in which Third World economies will witness persistent outflow of finance, even if they raise interest rates in tandem with US rates. There are two defining and portentous features of the current world economic situation. One, which is well discussed, is the world-wide increase in interest rates in response to the pervasive inflationary upsurge; it would indubitably generate recession and unemployment, which, notwithstanding all...