Do it yourself

  Recently, the growth in per capita GDP of India has been in the news. The government statistics claim that per capita income of India has almost doubled in the past nine years. This claim has generated intense discussion over the economic performance of the incumbent government; especially relative to the previous UPA government (2004-2014). Without getting into a political argument and keeping the statistics aside for a while; I would like the popular debate to take the following into consideration: ·           The last census of India was done in 2011. Therefore all “per capita” data points are using an estimated number of the population. There is a possibility that the actual number could be different from the estimates. ·           In the past twelve years there have been significant changes in the socio-economic and demographic structure of the country. The youth population has increase...

 As I mentioned yesterday ( see here ), unemployment in India is a multidimensional problem. Unemployability (skill deficit), underemployment, disguised unemployment, gender disparity, regional disparities, are some of the contours that define the state of unemployment in India. The genesis of the reasons responsible may be traced to traditions, education system, colonial legacy, economic policies, and demographics. Obviously, the solution for a multidimensional problem also needs to be multidimensional. The classical solution, i.e., industrialization alone is definitely inadequate for managing the complex unemployment situation in India. Employment framework in India As per 6 th Economics Census (2013), there were 58.5mn business establishments (excluding public administration, crop production & plantation, defense and compulsory social service activities) operating in the country. Of these ~96% establishments were privately owned while just ~4% were government owned. The...

National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) recently published a very interesting report. The report highlights how an average Indian uses his time. Based on a survey conducted between January and December 2019, the report describes how Indian household uses their time especially on unpaid caregiving activities, volunteer work, unpaid domestic service producing activities of the household members, learning, socializing, leisure activities, self-care activities, etc. The key finding of the survey (conducted for persons aged 6yrs and above) could be listed as follows: Engagement of people in various activities ·          The percentage of women engaged in employment and related activities is very low (18.4%) as compared to male (57.3%). The percentage of rural women in employment is higher (19.2%) than the urban women (16.7%). ·          More rural women (25%) produce goods for own use than the urban wo...

A few weeks ago, National Statistical Organization (NSO) released results of two important social sector surveys, i.e, Health and Education. The surveys conducted as part of 75th Round of Natinal Sample Survey (NSS) between July 2017 and June 2018, highlight some very important trends in household expenditure on Helath and Education. The key findings of the surveys are listed below: State of "Healthcare" in India About 7% of rural population and 9% of urban population reported suffering from some ailment during the 15days reference period. 28% of people in 60yr+ category 11% in 45-59yr category reported ill. Since 2014, there has been a marked decline in number of people suffering from anemia and tuberculosis. About 3% of population required hospitalization in past 365 days. The rate of hospitalization was much higher (8.5%) in case of people above 60yr of age. On an average, about Rs. 16,676 in rural India and Rs. 26,475 in urban India were spent on medical expenditure...