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India’s ‘developed’ status by 2047 depend on empowering its blue-collar workforce https://price360.in/articles-details.php?url=indias-developed-status-by-2047-depend-on-empowering-its-bluecollar-workforce Dr. Rajesh Shukla September 14, 2023

Data from PRICE’s ICE 3600 surveys (2016 and 2021) provide some major insights into the current status of this population.

In terms of size, they form a third of the country’s population: 500 million people equivalent to 100 million households who earn their livelihood through daily wages. Nearly half of them are residents of just five states - 15% are residents of Uttar Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra (11%), Bihar (9%), West Bengal (8%) and Tamil Nadu (7%). If the effect of population is removed, the top five states with the highest concentration of labour are: Bihar (50%), Madhya Pradesh (46%), West Bengal (42%), Jharkhand (40%) and Odisha (38%).

The labour households have an average annual income of Rs 126,000 (2020-21) which is one-eighth of the national income. Undoubtedly, a large segment has been able to extricate itself from grinding poverty, but their economic condition continues to be precarious at best. For the overwhelming majority of these households, savings is minimal. They spend almost all of what they earn and regularly borrow to meet their routine expenses. In 2016, 28% labour households reported that they were in debt and by 2021 this figure had risen to 40%. The share of indebted households (ranging from 13% to 57%) is highest in Bihar, Maharashtra and Telengana where more than half of labour households were reported in debt in 2020-21.

The significance of financial support and subsidies to this population cannot be over-emphasised. The pandemic threatened to push them back into crippling financial crises. Nearly 72% of labour households surveyed by PRICE revealed that they had received food or free rations from the government during the lockdowns. Another 58% reported receiving subsidised rations. NGOs provided food support to 14% of households while for 19% of such households, food support came from friends, relatives and neighbours.

Cash transfers from the government helped mitigate the financial crunch for nearly 32% of households and free medical aid was a much-needed resource - 23% received this from the state government and 15% from the central government. Another 23% confirmed that they had benefited from LPG subsidies.

While hailing the contribution of the workforce in our quest for economic development, we need to reiterate our commitment to building the skillsets, and social and economic well-being of this very large and significant segment of our population. Only then will we truly realize the potential of the “trinity of demography, democracy and diversity” in fulfilling our objective of becoming a developed economy by 2047.

DECODED - Is India's Economy Really Booming? | What do the numbers say? | Akash Banerjee & Manjul  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVgo5DFza4A The Deshbhakt Oct 18, 2023 JPMorgan’s MD today made a 'bold' forecast - that India will become 3rd largest economy in the world by 2027 & size of our economy will reach $7 trillion by 2030. While much of that will be driven by the massive size of our population - what does this spectacular achievement mean for the average Indian who's only seeing shrinking savings / lesser jobs / more inflation / less manufacturing. Even if India does a 8% growth for 4 years in a row and becomes No3 in the world - Where will it take you?

https://www.thequint.com/news/india/poor-in-india-lose-half-their-income-in-last-5-years-rich-got-richer-survey A new survey, which highlights the economic impact of the pandemic on Indian households, found that the income of the poorest 20 percent of the country declined by 53 percent in 2020-21 from that in 2015-16. The survey, conducted by the People's Research on India's Consumer Economy (PRICE), a Mumbai-based think tank, also shows that in contrast, the same period saw the annual household income of the richest 20 percent grow by 39 percent.

How Congress is changing with a non-Gandhi at the helm  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np2uQvYUIJE   24th Oct 2023 D K Singh ThePrint

Kharge is rebuilding Congress brick by brick, taking a leaf out of Prashant Kishor’s playbook https://theprint.in/opinion/politically-correct/kharge-is-rebuilding-congress-brick-by-brick-taking-a-leaf-out-of-prashant-kishors-playbook/1815318/    D.K. SINGH 23 October, 2023
This harmony with the Gandhis marks a positive in Kharge’s first year as the party chief. But his real achievement is using his equation with the Gandhis to implement what looks like poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s ‘4 M’ formula to revive the Congress—Messenger, Message, Machinery, and Mechanics.

As it is, the Congress doesn’t have a coherent message yet — it’s largely banking on anti-incumbency by focusing on failures of governance. But it seems to be working on a message now. It is experimenting with Other Backward Classes (OBC) politics through caste census demand, rich-versus-poor narrative through attacks on big businessmen and industrialists like Gautam Adani, freebies to match welfarism, love-versus-hate, and Kamal Nath-style I-am-a-bigger-Hindu campaigns to counter Hindutva. Jury is out on whether this message can counter Modi’s or the BJP’s in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.