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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Lok Sabha Standing Committee Concerned about Reduction in MGNREGA Budget, Recommends Increase
A report released by a Parliamentary standing committee has expressed concern over the reduction of funds for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The report by the Lok Sabha Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj released on 14 March, 2023 said that the Budget Estimates for MGNREGS has been reduced by Rs. 29,400 Crore for 2023-24 when compared to the Revised Estimates of 2022-23. The report said...
More »Real Wages Declined for Rural Indians in 2022, a Year When the Economy Somewhat Recovered
The year 2022 was supposed to mark the recovery of the Indian economy from the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns of the preceding two years. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February pushed up prices of food, fuel and fertilizer worldwide. In India consumer price inflation, which had declined to under 5 percent in the September-November period of 2021, has steadily increased, staying above 6 percent throughout 2022. What happened to rural incomes in 2022? An...
More »MGNREGA workers in West Bengal have not received wages since December 26, 2021
-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated December 26, 2022 * Centre withheld over Rs. 7,500 cr funds, Rs. 2,744 cr due to NREGA workers * Centre hasn’t sanctioned labour budget for 2022-23 * Loss of around Rs. 3,891-Rs. 6,046 crores of NREGA wages this FY due to stoppage of work * Average days of work for the current year dropped to meagre 23 from 63.46 days (pre-covid) and 49.96 days (post-covid) Victimisation of workers: MGNREGA...
More »Antimicrobial resistance: Intensification of food production must be sustainable -Habibar Rahman and Kennady Vijayalakshmy
-Down to Earth Rise in demand for meat and dairy products was reconciled through the intensification of livestock systems Intensification of food production is gaining prominence in a world battered by climate change and food insecurity. Intensification aims to increase output for each unit of input (labour, land, time, fertiliser, seed, feed, or money). The need for intensification is more pressing when the supply of food needs to be augmented. For instance, in...
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