Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2023, the fifth budget on February 01. With this budget India has marked the 75 years of Independence through Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav . Apart from this, the budget also laid down a plan for next 25 years and refers the same period as Amrit Kaal . Amrit Kaal What is Amrit Kaal? Last year, during the 75th Independence Day celebrations, PM Modi had unveiled a new roadmap for the country for the next 25 years, and termed it as 'amrit kaal.' This is a reference to deriving the best in every field, making it imperative for everyone to make 'prayas' for this. The purpose of Amrit Kaal is to better the lives of citizens, lessen the developmental divide between villages and cities, and reduce government interference in public life. It also entails the development or acquisition of the latest technologies...

On 17 th September 2020, Lok Sabha passed the three farm laws - (i) Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020; (ii) Farmer's (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020; (iii) Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 - followed by the Rajya Sabha on 20 th September 2020. The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, gave his assent on 27 th September 2020. First bill relaxes restrictions governing purchases and sale of farm produce, the second relaxes restrictions on stocking under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955, and third introduces a dedicated legislation to enable contract farming based on written agreements. Status of Agriculture in India Agriculture in India is without a doubt, one of the most pertinent sectors of the Indian economy. Contributi...

“I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can't be any worse..” ~ Mark Twain Introduction India is the World's largest democracy, containing the second largest population in the World. Since the Independence in 1947 the World's perception of India has changed; from categorizing and treating it as a 'developing' nation to today's belief of India to be a superpower with a strong ally in the international arena. Caste Pyramid There are many internal problems in India which need immediate attention, including the issue of caste discrimination and untouchability. Caste discrimination and untouchability is not something new; it derives its root from ancient India. It is a cultural and social phenomenon th...

India is mainly an agricultural society/ country. Agriculture is the most important occupation for most of the Indian families. Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy and will continue to remain so for a long time (as it seems now). Indian agriculture is characterised by agro-ecological diversities in soil, rainfall, temperature and cropping season. Agriculture and its allied sector employ more than half of the workforce in the country. However, it contributes only about 17% of the GDP. Distribution of Farmland in India 86% of total farmers are small and marginal, and they only own 47% of the total agricultural land, medium farmers are 13%, and they own 44% of the land, and the rest belongs to large farmers (see figure 1). The average size of farm holdings gradually reduced from 2.58 ha to 1.57 ha (2017-18 data) due to fragmentation of landholding generations after generation. These small and marginal farmers have limited resources com...

Pre and Post Coronavirus way of life Coronavirus or COVID-19 is now synonymous to lockdowns, curfews, massive airport screenings, quarantine and social distancing across the globe. It has affected every aspect of - political, economic, social, technological and cultural - life. The world as we know before the coronavirus and after the coronavirus is not going to be the same. There will be many fundamental changes in an individual's life, structural changes in the functioning of the society, and functional changes on the professional front. Already face masks, social distancing, priority to health etc. have become the new norm across the globe. Background On December 31, 2019, China reported the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of cluster of cases and pneumonia of an unknown cause in Wuhan City in Hubei province. On January 09, 2020, WHO issued a statement saying Chinese researchers have made "preliminary determination" of the virus as a nov...

The twin relationship between population and economic growth has always been a subject of great interest to economists, as population is a resource that supplies the labour force needed for industrialization that symbolises economic growth. However, it is an established principle that labour alone cannot produce anything without the help of other resources. If other resources needed for production are available in sufficient quantity, then a larger lobour force could become a productive asset of a country. Growth Rate of Population At any point of time, all countries have some people living there, the number of these people constitutes the size of population of that country at that time. This number, however, keeps on changing continuously through birth, deaths and immigration. Therefore, increase in the number of people during a fixed period of time, in a country, is called the growth rate of population. The rate of growth of population during a period is estimated as the rati...

Basics of Chinese Currency RMB is an abbreviation for 'Ren Min Bi', which means 'People's money' . Yuan is the base unit of RMB just as Dollar in USD. (1 RMB = 10 jioa = 100 fen) Chinese money comes by two names: Renminbi is the name of the currency and yuan refers to its primary unit. Renminbi is the official currency of China and act as a medium of exchange, but the yuan is the unit of account of the country's economic and financial system. Reasons behind launching e-RMB Replacing the dollar - A soverign digital currency provides a functional alternative to the dollar settlement system and blunts the impact of any sanctions or threats of exclusion both at a country and company level. China has successfully achieved Trade Globalisation, Economic Globalisation, and Military and Geo-strategic Globalisation, but it has failed to achieve Financial Globalisation. Without Financial Globalisation it is not possible to replace the Dollar as the World...

21 st century is marred by the outbreak of various zoonotic diseases. Be it the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Ebola haemorrhagic fever, Nipah virus encephalitis, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Swine Flu (H1N1) or Bird Flu (H5N1). They have resulted in millions of fatalities around the globe. The new addition in this line is the new strain of coronavirus i.e. SARS-CoV2 which has resulted into COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 pandemic is notified as 'biological' disaster by the government of India. Hence it is important to understand the meaning of “biological disaster” and assess India’s preparedness with respect to handling of a “biological disaster”. Means to Counter Biological disaster As per the constitutional norm, health is a state subject. The primary responsibility of dealing with the state government. There are a number of legislations that control and govern the nation's health. Government can enforce these legislations to contain the sp...

The truth about inequality The great promise of communism in the 20 th century was the removal of inequalities. However if failed comprehensively by 1991. The worldwide spread of capitalism and LPG wad the next big promise. But sadly data show that the world income inequality has grown and diminished. The seven key truths about income inequalities are: Income inequalities is lowest in Europe and highest in Middle East. The top 10% income share is 37% in Europe, 41% in China and 56% in India. In the Middle East top 10% cornered 61% of National Income. Since 1980s inequality has sharply risen in India, China, Russia, and North America. Regions like Brazil, Middle East and Sub-Sharan Africa are the inequality frontiers, as they never experienced post World War-II egalitarian. In 1980 the top 1% income share was roughly 10% in US and Western Europe, but today it is roughly 20% in US and 16% in Western Europe. The bottom 50% of share in America steeply dropped from 20% in ...