As the term of the original agreement between Government of India and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on inflation targeting (IT) ends on March 31, evaluations of this aspect of monetary policy have begun to emerge into the public domain.

Women are not dropping out. They are being pushed out by the lack of demand for their labour. There has been movement out of agriculture into informal and casual jobs, where the work is sporadic, and often less than 30 days at a stretch. The new modern sector opportunities, especially in high value-added service sectors, mostly accrue to men.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns hurt already declining household and individual wage incomes, writes Quartz India as it quotes the CEDA-CMIE Bulletin.

The gender gap in paid employment has markedly worsened due to the pandemic. To fix this, women need enabling conditions to get back to work. Instead, the pay-the-mother/wives proposal is arguing for the exact opposite. It has nothing to say about sharing the load.

The expenditure budgeted for 2021-22 is less than 1% higher than the revised estimates for the current year. It is in this sense that there is no immediate stimulus in this budget despite the developments with respect to the health and infrastructure sectors.