Development

This study analyses the changing structure of the labour force and employment in India using the Employment and Unemployment Survey (2011–12) and the Periodic Labour Force Surveys I and II (2017–18 and 2018–19). The estimates indicate that there was a mere improvement in employment from 2017–18 to 2018–19; however, as this was accompanied by a decline in the size of the workforce between 2011–12 and 2017–18, this does not indicate recovery. The unemployment rate, especially that of youth, remains at a historic high. A remarkable decline in the share of agriculture in the workforce without a corresponding increase in the non-agricultural sector indicates a somewhat distorted structural transformation. A sizeable portion of the female population has been withdrawn from the labour and workforces.

The Political Economy of Land Acquisition in India: How a Village Stops Being One by Dhanmanjiri Sathe, Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan (Imprint by Springer Nature), 2017; pp xvi + 204, price not indicated.

Fiscal sustainability is a key element for subnational governments in India as fiscal policy is the only instrument that can be used to correct economic malady. As far as state government finances are concerned, subnational financial stability can be understood as the capacity to generate adequate resources to afford their expenses on a sustained basis. An analysis of subnational fiscal sustainability, through a study of utilisation patterns of total debt receipts of state governments, is undertaken for 17 major Indian states during 1980–81 to 2014–15. The results indicate wide fluctuations among the states. While Kerala, Punjab, and West Bengal have shown poor and unproductive utilisation of debt receipts, Punjab has witnessed maximum instability.

Researchers and academia seldom think about the foot soldiers who collect data by travelling to villages, blocks, or districts and interviewing households and communities.