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...

-Business Standard Currency depreciation in developing countries could deepen food and energy inflation: Commodity Markets Outlook report Global energy prices will ease in the next couple of years but "remain considerably" higher than the historic average, said a report on Wednesday. In many economies, prices in domestic-currency terms remain elevated because of depreciation and this could deepen food and energy crises. "As the global growth slowdown intensifies, commodity prices are expected to ease in...

-ThePrint.in RBI's rate hike also among decisions announced last week that might pay political dividends in state polls, but could come with commensurate economic costs, say economists. New Delhi: Is the Modi government prioritising political gain over much-needed economic prudence with an eye on crucial assembly elections coming up in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh this year and more lined up the next? The answer seems to be yes, going by several critical decisions...

-NetworkIdeas.org Central banks all over the capitalist world are raising, or are about to raise, interest rates as a means of countering the currently rampant inflation, which is certain to push a world economy that is barely recovering from the effect of the pandemic, back towards stagnation and greater unemployment. Of course the Federal Reserve Board of the US which sets the standard in this respect for all other central banks, claims...

-The Tribune With policy-backing, subsidies and availability of easy credit, farmers are being pushed to buy more machines. Punjab has five times more tractors than required. As more technological gadgets and machines are promoted, farmers are increasingly sucked into a debt cycle, while equipment manufacturers are laughing all the way to the bank. At a time when farmers across the world are struggling to recover their cost of production, an Oxfam report...