Alhamdulillah, the sun of the blessed month of Ramadhan has beamed on us once again. The month that brings with it abundant blessings, copious rewards and abounding favours of Allah (سبحانہوتعالیٰ).  In Islamic calendar, this month of Ramadhan has been set apart exclusively for Ibadah (prayer). For this purpose, unlike normal days, decks are cleared and hindrances removed in this month by Allah (سبحانہوتعالیٰ) to create favourable atmosphere and ambience facilitating easy and smooth indulgence with prayer by opening the gate of the Paradise, closing the door of the Hell and fettering the Satan (Bukhari – 1899). On the other hand, the rewards for prayers are made manifold.  As the holy month progresses, the rain of blessings, bounties, favours and rewards becomes heavier and heavier and ascends to its peak in its last ten days.

Arshad Shaikh examines the recent clamour by different state governments to revert to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) from the current National Pension Scheme (NPS). The subject of pensions offered to retired government employees has brought forth many questions – who should fund pensions and why? Why was the NPS introduced? Are governments unable to afford pensions? If so, how are state governments promising the scrapping of NPS and returning to the OPS?

Arshad Shaikh studies the reduced allocation for MGNREGA in the Budget and the recently released PLFS numbers. Contrary to the government’s position that the status of our economy has reached the stage of “recovery complete”, it appears that we are still experiencing significant rural distress. A major challenge for our policymakers is to generate enough jobs for our youth and control inflation. However, those who govern us seem to be fixated only on growth numbers and bloating the size of the economy. The data on unemployment is not pleasant, and the lack of a “jobs policy” makes those numbers gloomier.