Hounding NewsClick; Whither Jobs; Pension Mid-path
PCI Protests; Azim premji report release; pension protest
Opinion Watch
Hounding NewsClick
Press Club of India was packed to the capacity yesterday with protesting scribes sporting “Free the Press” placard, while equal or more number of police and paramilitary personnel stood guards outside. The arrest of the founder of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha has invited sharp Editorials from dailies, with The Hindu headlining its comment as “Undeclared Emergency”, basing arguments on facts that probes against the news portals are being carried out since 2021 without any concrete charges emerging out. The Chennai-based daily also slammed the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre for “brazen” action of seizing laptops, mobile phones, and other gadgets of journalists working with the portal. The daily also questioned the action solely on the basis of a report in The New York Times, which also failed to list instances to link the portal with terror and Chinese propaganda.
Evidently, the police high-handedness in action against scores of journalists associated with NewsClick is in line with police actions against media aplenty in all parts of the country. The dailies have rightly called for probe in the funding of the portal, which allegedly received Rs 39 crores.
Whither Jobs
Any question on unemployment in Niti Aayog used to be met with a pet answer – “there is no credible data yet”. The Census 2021 and the annual labour surveys are stuck in a dark tunnel, and the likes of Azim Premji University have to mine data from multiple sources to come out with commentaries on the state of unemployment. Deccan Herald in its Editorial has revisited the findings to spotlight that the female participation in the rural workforce is now at a low of 28 per cent, while unemployment among the young graduates remains at 42 per cent. The Bengaluru-based daily also mentioned that the participations of the sons of casual workers has come down from 80 per cent to 53 per cent now for non-SC and ST population.
Sights of railway platforms in run up to recruitment examinations for police constable, teachers, and other posts loudly state that India remains firmly in the grip of jobless growth. The economists have reasoned for decades that the only way to break out is to create manufacturing base, which factly speaking is not taking off.
Pension Mid-path
The Indian Express in its Editorial has cautioned against the likely move of the Central government to find peace with the protests over the demand for restoration of Old Pension Scheme, basing arguments on the recent report of the RBI which said that the additional burden 0.9 per cent of the GDP by 2060. The Noida-based daily also stated that as of March 2023, the new pension scheme had 23.8 lakh central subscribers, and 60.7 lakh state government subscribers.
The cost of the exercise is well-know, and it will be more prudent for the government to explain the ground for fears among the NPS subscribers and effectively deal with them.
About The Author
