New Delhi: Former World Bank chief economist Kaushik Basu on Saturday said India needs to tame inflation that disproportionately affects people who spend a large chunk of their income on food and could exacerbate inequality. “Even if inflation is at 5.1%, food inflation is at 30%. For someone spending 50% of their income on food, … Read more
Women planting paddy seedlings in an agricultural field in Nagaon district of Assam. | Photo Credit: Ritu Raj Konwar On March 11, Bahutva Karnataka, a forum for concerned citizens and organisations, released a report titled ‘Employment, Wages and Inequality’, at the Press Club, Bengaluru. The report analyses the progress in various employment-related indicators in the … Read more
A four-day long conference, hosted by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to begin in New Delhi on Monday, will discuss lack of access to women farmers to land rights, farm inputs and the inequality in agriculture. President Droupadi Murmu will inaugurate the conference, which … Read more
SBI Economists on Monday dismissed the ‘K-shaped recovery‘ critique, saying the pandemic was a ‘leveler’ which helped in reducing inequalities. The economists at India’s largest lender also said government transfers to the poor alone are adding up to Rs 75,000 per household per annum. In the months following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns … Read more
SOURCES: American Journal of Public Health: “Avertable Deaths Associated With Household Income in Virginia,” “Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Hypertension Prevalence: Reconsidering the Role of Chronic Stress.” American Journal of Public Medicine: “Neighborhood Environments.” APM Reports: “House poor, pollution rich.” BMC Public Health: “Associations between perceived stress, socioeconomic status, and health-risk behavior in deprived neighborhoods in Denmark: … Read more
There are different kinds of inequalities in India that are multidimensional and intersectional in nature. While multidimensional poverty has been an area of study in the field of developmental economics since the early 2000s, multidimensional inequality is a fairly new perspective. Such an approach focuses on the interrelationship between different variables like income, labour, education, … Read more
With the first wave witnessing the return of migrant workers to their home states further worsening the early crisis, the dependence on the scheme was evident. Synopsis Through its sophisticated social protection system with schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and Public Distribution System (PDS) that target uplifting the poorest … Read more
In order to address the rising inequality in the country particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a study has pitched for re-introduction of wealth and inheritance tax and provide incentives on them for charitable donations. The study carried out jointly by Ashoka University and think tank Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) has observed that … Read more
“Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.” These are the famous lines by a Scottish-born writer, feminist and free-thinker, Frances Wright. Equality, as we all know, is not just a concept, it’s not just something we read about in books, or teach in class, but it’s something that … Read more
The World Inequality Report 2022 released by Paris-based World Inequality Lab, a global research initiative, pegs India to be among the most unequal countries in the world. While the bottom half of the population in India earns Rs 53,610, the top 10% earns twenty times more at Rs 11,66,520. While the top 10% and top … Read more