Economics Arcs

*Women share in NREGS dips to 8-year low*

*An analysis of data available at the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) portal says that the share of women in the NREGS is the lowest since 2013-14. It has dipped to 52.46%.
*According to the data, there are 13.34 crore active beneficiaries under NREGS. Of this, 6.58 crores are women. The data also says that the scheme had generated 280 crore person days(work done by a person in one working day) for the current year. Of this,183 crore person days have already been generated. This signals the distress in rural areas.
This decline in number of women participation may be because of increased participation of men.

*The NREGS is important in the current scenario of COVID-19 crisis. This is because, the GOI has planned to provide livelihood to the migrant workers returned to their home towns through NREGS. The Jal Jeevan Mission is to be included in implementing the plan. Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the GOI aims to provide tap water connections to all households in the country. Therefore, the skills of migrant workers and other rural unemployed are to be used to implement Jal Jeevan Mission through NREGS.
*The Indian Railways have also identified several works such as laying approach roads, bridge construction, etc. to provide works to the migrant workers under NREGS.

RBI Annual Report 2019-20:
On August 25, 2020, the Reserve Bank of India released its annual report 2019-20. According to the report, the total income in 2019-20 has increased by 28.97%.

HIGHLIGHTS:
*The total income in the year 2018-19 was Rs 1,49,672 crore. In 2019-20, it was Rs 1,93,036 crore.
*The Gross Non-Performing Ratio of banking system have declined to 9.1% as compared to 11.2% in March 2019.
*The currency in circulation has soared 17%. It was Rs 21.10 trillion in 2019-20.
*Till June 2019, the RBI held 618.16 metric tonnes of gold as compared to 566.23 tonnes held in June 2018.

Contingency Funds:
The Contingency Funds of RBI reduced to Rs 1.96 lac crore. It was Rs 2.32 lac crores in 2018-19. This was mainly because RBI has changed the way of calculating its reserves based on the recommendations made by Bimal Jalan Committee. An Economic Capital Framework Committee was set up under former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan.