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The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), launched in 2017, addressed this by providing annual estimates for rural and urban areas and quarterly estimates for urban areas, replacing the episodic framework with continuous measurement. 

India’s struggle with timely labour statistics dates back decades. The National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO’s) Employment and Unemployment Surveys operated on thick and thin rounds, with comprehensive data collected only roughly every five years — a significant inadequacy for a large, fast-changing labour market. The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), launched in 2017, addressed this by providing annual estimates for rural and urban areas and quarterly estimates for urban areas, replacing the episodic framework with continuous measurement. However, PLFS itself retained limitations in frequency, geographical granularity, and international comparability. The 2025 redesign directly addresses these gaps.

The PLFS, revamped from January 2025, pursues three objectives: monthly estimates of key labour indicators — worker population ratio (WPR), labour force participation rate (LFPR), and unemployment rate — at the all-India level for both rural and urban areas; extended quarterly coverage to rural areas for the first time, enabling combined national estimates; and continued annual estimates in both usual and current weekly status on a calendar year basis.

Sampling methodology has been substantially strengthened. The first stage units (FSUs) surveyed have increased from 12,800 to 22,594, while households per FSU have risen from eight to twelve, yielding a total sample of approximately 270,472 households — a 2.65 times increase. Critically, the district now replaces the NSS region as the basic stratum, making PLFS estimates representative at the district level and significantly improving the granularity for sub-state labour market analysis.

The rotational panel design has been restructured significantly. Previously, urban households were visited once per quarter with no revisit provision for rural households. Under the new design, all selected households are visited four times across four consecutive months, ensuring 75% matching between consecutive months and 50% between successive quarters. The selection method has shifted from PPS with replacement to simple random sampling, with sub-stratification introduced in urban areas.

Beyond sampling, several additional items have been incorporated into the first visit schedule, including five education-related questions on class completed and years of schooling; a question on the nature of the vocational training certifying body; two questions on land possessed and leased out; and four questions on household income from rent, interest, pension, and remittances. These additions make the new PLFS schedule considerably richer — effectively combining labour force measurement with household income, asset, and education profiling in a single instrument.

Recognising that the July-June framework made India’s labour statistics difficult to compare with international databases — all of which operate on calendar year cycles — and to provide a meaningful transition between the old and new series, MoSPI has released a back series of PLFS estimates on a calendar year basis. The back series begins in 2021 and not earlier for two reasons. First, 2020 was severely disrupted by Covid-19, making a clean, fully canvassed calendar year impossible. Second, the PLFS schedule was expanded around this period to incorporate a consumption block — household usual monthly consumer expenditure collected through five questions mirroring recent NSS rounds — making pre-2021 unit-level data structurally incompatible with later years.

A critical distinction must be noted. The calendar year back series through 2024 was constructed using the old sample design re-cut to a calendar year window; January 2025 marks the first data collected entirely under the new design. When multiple design elements change simultaneously — sample size, stratification, selection method, panel structure, and schedule content — differences in estimates may reflect genuine labour market shifts, seasonal effects, or design effects, making clean separation difficult. MoSPI itself has cautioned that post-January 2025 results cannot be straightforwardly compared with earlier publications.

India now has better labour market data than it has ever had. The revamp of PLFS comes at a particularly consequential moment — the four new labour codes covering wages, industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety have been brought into force in November 2025, reshaping hiring practices, formalisation incentives, and social protection coverage across the economy. Whether these reforms are delivering — whether formalisation is increasing, whether wage floors are binding, whether social security coverage is expanding — requires high-frequency, district-level data. India’s five trillion-dollar ambition and the Viksit Bharat vision both rest on assumptions about who is working, in what conditions, and with what protection. For too long, the data arrived too late and at too aggregated a level to be of real policy use. That constraint has now been lifted. The question is whether policymakers and researchers will use what they now have with the rigour the moment demands.

Jyoti is an associate fellow, and Dhruv is a research analyst at NCAER, New Delhi. Views are personal.

The future of irrigation lies not in choosing between the big and the small, but in integrating the two within a coherent, systems-based approach.

India’s irrigation story has long been told through large dams and canal networks. For decades, policy has focused on expanding major and medium irrigation projects to create irrigation potential. Yet, much of this discourse has treated large infrastructure and decentralised water systems as separate domains. The real question today is no longer how much we build, but how effectively water reaches farms, interacts with local water systems, and ultimately sustains livelihoods. Recent field-based assessments across irrigation command and adjoining non-command areas point to a more complex reality. While large irrigation projects do create potential, their benefits are unevenly distributed and often extend beyond officially designated command areas. In several project regions, villages outside command areas have also witnessed improvements in cropping intensity, farm incomes, and agricultural productivity. These gains are driven by indirect processes such as groundwater recharge, improved connectivity, and localised spillovers from intensified agriculture.

At the same time, disparities persist within command areas. Farmers located at the head of canals typically receive assured water supply, while those at the tail-end often face shortages and turn to groundwater as a fallback. This uneven access highlights a deeper structural issue.

A critical paradox defines India’s irrigation landscape: while public investment remains concentrated in large projects, actual irrigation use is largely sustained by decentralised systems. These include not only wells and tube wells, but also local water infrastructure such as check dams, water harvesting tanks, recharge pits, and field bunding structures. By slowing surface runoff and enhancing soil moisture, these interventions play a crucial role in sustaining agriculture, particularly in water-stressed regions.

Examples from states such as Gujarat and Rajasthan illustrate this well. In Gujarat, widespread construction of check dams and farm ponds has significantly improved groundwater levels in several districts, enabling farmers to stabilise crop production. Rajasthan offers a compelling illustration through the revival of traditional water harvesting systems such as johads. In districts like Alwar, community-led efforts to restore johads—small earthen check dams designed to capture and store rainwater—have led to a visible rise in groundwater levels. Seasonal rivers that had long dried up have shown signs of revival, and previously fallow lands have been brought under cultivation. Farmers report higher cropping intensity and a gradual shift towards more remunerative crops, supported by improved water availability. Similar outcomes have been observed in parts of Maharashtra, where watershed development and farm pond initiatives have helped improve water availability and stabilise agricultural incomes in drought-prone regions. In Telangana, the restoration of traditional tanks under Mission Kakatiya has improved local water storage and supported agricultural recovery in several districts.

The impact extends beyond agriculture. With more reliable water access, households have reduced their dependence on seasonal migration and expanded local employment opportunities. Higher and more stable incomes have enabled investments in housing, livestock, and education. Improved water access has also reduced the burden on women, freeing up time for other productive activities. These outcomes illustrate how small-scale water systems can generate wide-ranging economic and social benefits. Such experiences suggest that the effectiveness of irrigation investments cannot be assessed in isolation from the local water systems that sustain them.

Evidence from field surveys conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research across 20 states, covering 57 major irrigation projects at the behest of the Central Water Commission, reinforces these observations. It represents one of the most extensive field-based assessments of irrigation impacts in recent years.

Beyond the creation of irrigation potential, improved access to water has led to significant changes in rural economies. Farmers have increased cropping intensity and diversified towards higher-value crops. More stable farm incomes have reduced seasonal migration and enabled greater investment in assets, education, and healthcare.

These findings highlight that irrigation is not merely about water delivery—it is about enabling broader rural transformation. However, the extent of these benefits varies across regions, depending on how effectively large infrastructure interacts with local water systems and institutions.

There is also a growing sustainability concern. Even within canal command areas, farmers increasingly rely on groundwater due to its reliability and flexibility. Without adequate recharge, this trend risks depleting already stressed aquifers. Here, decentralised water conservation structures become critical—not as substitutes, but as complements to large irrigation systems.

Policy initiatives such as micro-irrigation under the “Per Drop More Crop” programme reflect a growing emphasis on efficiency in water use. However, these efforts often remain fragmented and disconnected from the broader irrigation ecosystem. There is a need for a more integrated approach that links large irrigation infrastructure with local water systems and groundwater management. More fundamentally, this calls for a shift from a project-centric view to a systems perspective—one that evaluates irrigation not merely in terms of potential created, but in terms of actual outcomes such as water use efficiency, livelihood improvements, and long-term sustainability.

India’s irrigation challenge is no longer about expanding access alone; it is about managing water more intelligently and equitably across scales. As pressures on water resources intensify, the focus must shift from simply creating infrastructure to improving how water is stored, distributed, and used. Large dams and canal systems will continue to play a critical role in supporting agriculture and regional water security. At the same time, thousands of small, decentralised structures—such as check dams, tanks, and recharge systems—quietly sustain groundwater levels, buffer climate variability, and underpin rural livelihoods.

Recognising the complementarities between these systems is essential. Large infrastructure can provide scale and stability, while local water systems enhance resilience, efficiency, and last-mile access. When designed and managed together, they can reinforce each other—canals supporting recharge, and local systems improving water retention and utilisation.

The future of irrigation, therefore, lies not in choosing between the big and the small, but in integrating the two within a coherent, systems-based approach—one that places equal emphasis on sustainability, efficiency, and livelihood outcomes.

Saurabh Bandyopadhyay, Laxmi Joshi, Charu Jain and Kushagra Thakral work with NCAER. Views are personal.

The ongoing parliamentary session addressing the 33% Women’s Reservation Act underscores its profound economic and social advantages. Studies indicate that when women participate in policymaking, the results are transformative—leading to enhanced investments in healthcare and education and a significant drop in child mortality rates. Yet, India still trails behind in female political representation compared to the global landscape.

As Parliament concluded its special session on implementing the 33% Women’s Reservation Act, the reform’s socioeconomic benefits remain clear. It’s not merely about equity or inclusion, but also carries far-reaching, tangible gains for society.

In a 2025 NCAER working paper, ‘Women in Policymaking: Social Spending and Outcomes’, women’s economic participation in policymaking is shown to be a powerful means of delivering better development outcomes.

The research, conducted on emerging markets and developing countries, finds that greater female representation in Parliament and cabinets is associated with higher public spending on health and education, key drivers of economic growth, as well as reduction in infant and under-5 child mortality rates, greater access to water services, and higher years of schooling.

A more significant finding is that even when spending on health and education does not change, these outcomes improve. A possible reason for this is that when resources are limited, female political leaders tend to find ways to spend resources more efficiently and deliver outcomes more effectively.

Where do Indian female political leaders stand relative to other countries? Representation of women in politics across the world has trended upwards over time, with regional variations. According to IMF’s gender database, share of women in national parliaments in EMs and developing countries is about 23% (as of latest 2023 data), compared to nearly 34% in advanced economies. India’s stood at around 15%. This share has increased for both groups and India since 2000. But India is not only lagging behind its peers but also progress since 2000 has been slow.

Similarly, share of women in ministerial-level positions has also increased across the world, rising at a faster pace in advanced economies. As of 2023, it stands at 34% in advanced economies, 20% in EMs and developing countries, and around 7% in India. Albania (67%), Nicaragua (62.5%) and Mozambique (55%) have advanced the fastest since 2000.

Many countries introduced quotas for reserving seats for women in political positions to combat entrenched gender bias. Progressive countries like Rwanda and Albania have formal quotas mandated for such positions at 30%. By 2023, Rwanda had over 60% women in parliament, while Albania led in female ministers at over 65%. These figures exceed mandated quotas, suggesting that initial reservations created momentum for greater voluntary representation.

Introduction of reservations for women in Panchayati Raj institutions led to measurable improvements in local public goods provision, including drinking water, roads and education. Moreover, it has had a discernible impact on adolescent girls’ career aspirations and educational attainment. Quotas have helped weaken stereotypes about gender roles and improved perceptions about the effectiveness of female leaders.

India has made important strides in women’s empowerment over the past decade:

Female education has risen steadily, and is almost on par with male counterparts, especially in secondary education.

Female labour force participation has more than doubled in the past decade.

A growing number of studies indicate that women are more likely to prioritise essential public goods that directly increase household welfare, such as healthcare, schooling, nutrition and local infrastructure. Quality of government expenditure also improves. Presence of female leaders challenges deep-seated beliefs about their abilities and helps transform social and cultural norms.

In short, gains to society and economy from having more female political leaders are immense. Extending this transformation to the national level is the next logical step.

The writers are with Centre for Gender and Macroeconomy, NCAER. Views are personal.