In 2024, global employment expanded in line with a growing labour force, keeping the global unemployment rate steady at 5 per cent, similar to that of 2023. Slowing productivity growth remains a major bottleneck with respect to expanding the opportunities for decent work. On the back of stable unemployment rates, …
Tackling climate change effectively is going to require serious sums of money. Developing countries, many of whom are on the front-line in the battle against global warming, will require large amounts of external public finance to adapt to climate change, combat deforestation and move to low-carbon pathways out of poverty. …
The 61st round (2004-05) of the National Sample Survey showed that there was a turnaround in employment growth in rural India after a phase of jobless growth during the 1990s. Paradoxically, this employment growth occurred during a period of widespread distress in the agricultural sector with low productivity, price instability …
The farm is greener than five years ago, yet the bounty is hyped Suddently there is talk of agricultural and rural prosperity. Businesses are counting on rural demand as exports and investments shrink; and this is also being viewed in political circles as a reason why we may not see …
While declining real product prices faced by primary commodity producers was one of the central causes of rising farm indebtedness, the gradual shrinkage of formal credit institutions in rural areas has simultaneously caused increasing dominance of private players in the credit market, rendering producers all the more vulnerable. A class …
Depression in agriculture and farmer suicides continue, thanks to the misguided actions of Indian policymakers. AS the outstanding Marxist economist Paul Baran had pointed out in The Political Economy of Growth, what is cooked in the kitchen is not decided in the kitchen. Similarly, what happens to agricultural producers is …
The Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is in the news again for the wrong reasons, as usual. This time the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL) is trying to go back on its promises to the very investors who put their money in the project when it was facing its strongest …
The need for developing countries to address issues of adapting to and mitigating climate change is both urgent and evident, as the impact of climate change grows daily. Yet they have competing immediate development and poverty reduction expenditure demands, and have recently been faced with food, fuel and financial crises. …
The Maharashtra government is working overtime trying to plug gaps in the Rs 60,000-crore loan waiver for farmers announced in the Union budget. As things stand now, Vidarbha, the state's worst-hit region which has seen nearly three suicides a day for the last two years, will benefit the least from …
Farmers adapt to changing weather by switching crops Farmers who have to live with the reality of unpredictable rainfall are trying to cope as best as they can. They are experimenting with different crops to see what works. And each time they start new field trials, they incur debts. In …
The mortgage crisis in the US has not just precipitated a worldwide economic meltdown. It has also made an impact on the English language. The Macquarie Dictionary, widely regarded as the guardian of Australian English, has named the phrase
Maharashtra has proved to be the slow but steady winner. On the surface a proverbial tortoise without any flashy attributes, the state has performed as well as a long-haul horse in a gruelling race. The study of the Institute for Competitiveness has adjudged Maharashtra to be the No. 1 state …
Agricultural development in Maharashtra over the last three decades has been unequal across regions with western Maharashtra much ahead of other regions in terms of major developmental indicators. The rapid agricultural development in western Maharashtra is attributed to the rise of Maratha-Kunbi peasants as a unified political class, who dominated …
The peasantry in the Deccan suffered from widespread indebtedness during the 19th century. In March 1881, after touring the rural areas of Poona and Ahmadnagar districts, which were still recovering from the devastations caused by famine and the credit crunch followed by the peasant revolt of 1876-79, Mahadev Govind Ranade …
One of the outcomes of the neo-liberal policy era is a high incidence of farmers suicides in different parts of the country. These suicides have been occurring not only in drought prone states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra but also in high rainfall states like Kerala or in well …
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan today announced a Rs 6,200 crore farm loan waiver for the 4 million farmers in the state who were not covered by the central government
Banks hesitate in lending to farmers in Uttar Pradesh; fertilizers and seeds in short supply Farmers in Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh know at least one person they can count on in times of doubt or crisis. Manoj Kumar, 30, has been working with farmers for eight years, travelling to …
Rising input prices have almost sounded the death knell for the farmer. Is there a way out? A special report published in Down To Earth. For most Indians, Mahendra Singh Tikait is the man who brought Delhi to its knees in 1988 with a rally that brought the national capital …
Consumers have no say in the bad plans made in their name mangalore is witnessing fights over water pricing. But beyond politicizing the issue, the protestors themselves are clueless about how the water in their city was priced. The Mangalore Municipal Corporation (mcc) says poor cost recovery is preventing it …
