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...
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Hunger and Malnutrition in India after a Decade of the National Food Security Act, 2013 - Neetu Sharma, Jyotsna Sripada, Shruthi Raman
National Law School of India University, Bengaluru What is the status of hunger and malnutrition in India? The year 2023 marks a decade since the enactment of the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The Act aims to provide food and nutritional security by ensuring access to quality food at affordable prices. However, despite 10 years of food security being a legal right and the availability of sufficient quantities of food grains, India...
More »Agriculture doesn’t get its due in budget - Kedar Vishnu, Ashish Andhale
Deccan Herald Many economists expected a massive allocation for the agricultural sector in the budget, especially after the repeal of three farm law bills. However, the agricultural sector allocation decreased drastically from Rs 1.33 lakh crore in the Union Budget 2022–23 to Rs 1.25 lakh crore in 2023–24. It received only 3.78 per cent of the total budget share in 2021–22; this was reduced to 3.36 per cent in 2022–23 and further...
More »Expand PDS to include non-ration card holders and 10 crore excluded by using old census figures: Right to Food Campaign
A coalition of civil society activits has criticized the Union Budget 2023-24 for reducing government spending on the social sector by a massive amount. The economic crisis induced by the Covid-19 pandemic was borne disproportionately by those at the bottom of the pyramid and in this context spending on social protection schemes such as the Public Distribution System, anganwadis, pensions and MGNREGA is especially important. But the Government of India has...
More »Indian banks gave more home loans than agricultural credit
In each of the last three years – from 2020 through 2022 – Indian banks lent more money to retail customers purchasing homes than they did to farmers. In fiscal year (FY)2021-22 commercial banks gaveRs. 17.54 lakh crore worth of housing loans, while agriculture and allied activities got Rs. 15.16 lakh crore. That is nearly 14 percent less. In FY 2021 and FY 2020 – one of which saw a...
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