India's main inflation measure, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), is set for another major update, even though it has been in its current form for only about 15 years.
President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, which aims to replace MGNREGA and guarantee 125 days of wage employment per rural household.
A bill to repeal the MGNREGA and introduce a new rural employment law, the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), has been circulated among Lok Sabha members.
'When you compare Bihar's poverty from its earlier times, then there is a huge difference. Things have improved a lot. And migration has played an important role in reducing poverty.'
'Our politics is transparent -- it's about ensuring farmers don't die by suicide, about ensuring agriculture remains viable, about ensuring food security for the nation.' 'If that's politics, then yes, we do politics.'
'Marathwada is the suicide capital of Maharashtra.' 'To stop such man-made disasters, the government should immediately come up with a rightful package, not this charitable approach to compensation.'
'What the US appears to be doing is to force India to be "the buyer of last resort", on whom their products can be dumped, 1.4 billion people have to eat something, so why not eat American corn?' 'What is exercising the Trump lot is the fact that most of the farms are in solidly Republican Midwestern states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin,' points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
According to the authorities, tragedy struck near the border town of Metula on Thursday morning when a rocket fired from Lebanon slammed into an apple orchard, claiming the lives of five people.
'Over the next 20 years, we would be adding almost 10 million people to the workforce every year!' 'And we won't be able to give employment to even 2 million out of the 10 million every year.' 'Don't forget, it keeps adding every year.'
'The policy focus of the government should have been on creating more good quality jobs but that was not their focus.'
Assuming we still have a Modi-led majority government after May 2024, there is no guarantee that reforms will move at anything more than a snail's pace, though we must be thankful even for that, notes R Jagannathan.
From all indications, Sunil Kanugolu is here to stay, though whether his magic will help the Congress in the northern states in the Lok Sabha elections remains to be seen, wonders Aditi Phadnis.
The situation raises concerns about whether the promised freebies will once again push the state into a revenue deficit.
'Its people are either victims of corruption or witnesses to it.'
The ruling Congress is seeking to retain power in Chhattisgarh by banking on the welfare schemes of the Bhupesh Baghel government, while the Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping to corner it on the issues of alleged corruption, religious conversions and unfulfilled poll promises.
If the corruption issue doesn't claim Mr Baghel, the Congress's chances in the assembly election later this year are good, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Jail inmates produced goods generating gross sales worth Rs 223.4 crore in 2020, according to the government's annual Prison Statistics India report. The amount ranks at 496th place if compared with the latest net sales numbers of S&P BSE 500 companies, reports Sachin P Mampatta.
The Delhi high court on Thursday sought the stand of the central government and Central Waqf Council on a PIL seeking to declare that the Waqf Act is in violation of the Constitution and that private properties of citizens can only be governed by a Uniform Civil Code.
'I don't need to go out now. I don't have to buy votes. My workers are campaigning for me, visiting villages. I know people in every village and their issues,' says the 78-year-old leader.
Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf does a comparative analysis of suicide numbers released by the NCRB. Data: Hemantkumar Shivsaran/Rediff.com.
Most political leaders in Punjab have come out in the open to oppose him, unlike the early 1980s when political leaders were scared of speaking against Bhindranwale, observes Sudhir Bisht.
However, the combat jet landed safely in the nearby Sulur Air Force station,
The 6.7% growth in Index of Consumer Sentiments in July 2022 is the highest since September 2021, explains Mahesh Vyas.
Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian on Wednesday said India is expected to hit a growth rate of 6.5-7 per cent in 2022-23 and accelerate further to 8 per cent in the subsequent years on the back of reforms undertaken by the government. He also said the government is expected to meet the fiscal deficit target of 6.8 per cent in the current fiscal despite pressure on revenue collections.
Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal are realising that it is not a cakewalk to run a full state that is plagued with a fiscal deficit and where emotions run high at the drop of a hat, observes Sudhir Bisht.
34 farmers and farm labourers committed suicide on an average every day in 2014, reflecting the deepening agrarian distress in several parts of the country.
The allowance of Rs 1000 per month being paid to farmers of Singur, who had unwillingly parted with their land and not accepted Minister Mamata Banerjee announced.
RRBs were formed under an Act to provide credit to small farmers, agricultural labourers and businesses in rural areas.
'The prospects for both India and the global economy is that we are headed towards a very difficult time.' 'I see very uncertain at least 8-10 months for both India and the rest of the world.'
In May, Satpal Singh, who runs a dairy business with three buffaloes in Jewar, near Noida, was worried about the steep spike in input costs. Singh said dry fodder rates, which cost Rs 1,500-2000 per tractor trolley last year, were quoting at Rs 4,500-5,000. The price of other cattle feed ingredients (that include mustard meal and similar mixes) had also gone up from Rs 2,000 per quintal to Rs 3,100-3,200 per quintal.
A pick-up in farmer income could have a cascading impact on the rural economy, though agriculture is becoming a smaller part of India's overall rural incomes.
The country's economy will start witnessing a growth of 6.5 to 7 per cent from fiscal 2023 onwards, helped by various reforms undertaken by the government so far and also as COVID-19 vaccination drive progresses, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said. He said the second wave of COVID-19 is unlikely to have a very significant on the economy. The country's economy contracted by 7.3 per cent in fiscal 2020-21. "Together with the reforms and focus on vaccination, I expect growth to start hitting close 6.5 to 7 per cent from FY23 onwards and accelerate from there on," Subramanian said at a virtual event organised by Dun & Bradstreet.
Workers moving out of agriculture to the rural labour force were largely getting absorbed in construction activities
Tikait says PM Modi was supporter of MSP law when he was CM
'If you are mature and haven't done terrible things to each other, love doesn't have to go away.'
Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said the stimulus package has left several sections like the poor, migrants, farmers, labourers, workers, small shopkeepers and middle class high and dry.
Given the worsening security scenario in Kashmir, we cannot afford to have a restive Punjab with its peasantry up in arms against the central government, argues Virendra Kapoor.
Chidambaram said the stimulus package has left several sections like the poor, migrants, farmers, labourers, workers, small shopkeepers and middle class high and dry.
On the ground, rural medical infrastructure and more crucially, women's access to reproductive health services is practically non-existent in Uttar Pradesh, reports Geetanjali Krishna.