Day of the Year
National Gorgeous Grandma Day
In order to understand the history of National Gorgeous Grandma Day, you need to know where the phrase ‘Gorgeous Grandma’ comes from. We have Alice Solomon to credit for this. She graduated from Wellesley College at the age of 50-years-old in 1984.
She felt that society viewed her and other females of her age or older as senior citizens. She believed that they were viewed as females who were no longer relevant or useful, and so she made it her mission to change this notion.
Latest Updates
Economy likely to grow by 6.5% to 7% this year: Survey
The Indian economy has broadly caught up with pre-COVID growth trends, averting any permanent scarring, and is likely to grow by 6.5% to 7% this year with prospects of clocking 7%-plus growth in coming years, as per the Economic Survey for 2023-24 that also drew attention to the need to address inequality and unemployment as a policy priority.
Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V. Anantha Nageswaran, the lead author of the Survey, made a pitch for the Union and State governments to let go of their myriad regulatory powers to ease the burden on businesses.
he authors of the Survey, which was tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Monday, mooted steps to tackle inequality, improve the young population’s health in the short to medium term, and bridge the education-employment gap.
States
Lalu demands Nitish’s resignation after Centre says no to special status
The Opposition in Bihar targeted Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday after the Centre ruled out the possibility of special category status (SCS) to the State.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad demanded the Chief Minister’s resignation over his failure to secure SCS for the Bihar.
Mr. Kumar, while presiding over a legislative party meeting of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), however, claimed that the Centre, where his Janata (Dal) United or JD(U) is part of the ruling alliance as well, has “promised to give something good” to the State.
News Capsule
‘India has shifted to women-led development; female labour force participation rate rising’
Observing that India is transitioning from women’s development to women-led development, Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran on Monday said there had been a 218.8% increase in budgetary allocation for schemes for the welfare and empowerment of women even as he acknowledged that women in India faced the “motherhood penalty” with a drop in female labour force participation rate around childbearing years.
“The share of the Gender Budget in the total Union Budget has increased to 6.5% in financial year 2025, the highest since the introduction of Gender Budgeting Scheme in financial year 2006,” he said in the Economic Survey, which was tabled in Parliament.
The Survey said that skilling schemes had put a dedicated emphasis on covering women, and the number of women trained under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) had increased from 42.7% in the financial year 2015-16 to 52.3% in the financial year 2023-24.
Slow progress on railway safety: Economic Survey
Safety issues are a concern after a spate of railway accidents, but the Economic Survey, 2023-24, released on Monday, indicates limited progress on safety-related works such as deployment of the automatic train protection system Kavach and overhaul of signalling systems at all stations.
Kavach has been deployed on 1,465 route km in South Central Railway, the Survey says. This is just 2.14% of the total railway network of 68,426 route km and 7,349 railway stations.
The Survey also states that the capital expenditure deployment in the Railways has increased by 77% over the past five years, to ₹2.62 lakh crore in 2023-24 with significant investments in construction of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling.
A green wealth tax in Budget 2024
Today, the new government will present its maiden Budget, which needs to deliver on two critical issues confronting the common people — unemployment and inequality.
For India to utilise its huge demographic dividend, its young population, the government needs to think long term and prioritise employment both by actively providing for it in the Budget and incentivising employment generation in the private sector.
There has been a dramatic rise in inequality in wealth and income for more than two decades now. A significant rise in consumption as a result of this has also led to burgeoning carbon emissions by the Indian elite. Chart 1 presents the per capita carbon footprint of the top 10% of the Indian population, which, while diverging from an average Indian’s, has converged with that of a first world citizen.
‘MGNREGS job demand no indicator of distress’
Laying the groundwork for revisiting the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as a poverty alleviation tool, Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran on Monday noted in the Economic Survey that demand under the scheme was not a “real indicator” of rural distress.
While there is a marked variation in the performance of the scheme across States, he said that none of the studies conducted so far had come up with a satisfactory explanation on the unevenness in outcomes.
While Tamil Nadu has less than 1% of the poor population in the country, it accounted for nearly 15% of all the MGNREGS funds released in the financial year 2023-24. Kerala, with only 0.1% of the poor population, used almost 4% of the total funds allocated.
