WAGE RATE INDEX (WRI)

• Vaid's ICS, Lucknow
• 30, Nov 2021

Why in News?

Expert Group unveils report on base revision of Wage Rate Index (WRI) to 2016=100 from base 1963-65=100.

Related Facts:

• The new series of Wage Rate Index (WRI) with base year 2016=100, is being compiled and maintained by Labour Bureau, an attached office of Ministry of Labour & Employment.
• The new series of WRI with base 2016=100 will replace the old series with base 1963-65=100.
• The New WRI Series with base 2016=100 would be compiled twice a year on point-to-point half yearly basis, as on 1st January and 1st July of every year.

Some of the major improvements made under the new series of WRI (2016=100) vis-à-vis old series (1963-65=100) are as under:

• The weighting diagram in the new WRI series has been prepared from the results of the Occupational Wage Survey (Seventh) round.
• A total of 37 industries have been covered in the new WRI basket (2016=100) as against 21 industries in the 1963-65=100 series.
• The selected 37 industries in the new series are categorized as 30 industries from Manufacturing sector, 4 industries from Mining Sector and 3 industries from Plantation Sector as compared to 14 industries from Manufacturing sector, 4 industries from Mining Sector and 3 industries from Plantation Sector in the old series.
• In the new WRI basket, the current wage data has been collected from 2881 units under 37 selected industries as against to 1256 units under 21 industries in the old series of WRI.
• About 700 occupations have been covered under 37 selected industries in new series of WRI (2016=100).

FACTS FOR PRELIMS:

KONGTHONG VILLAGE

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has expressed gratitude to the people of Kongthong for a special tune in his honour and in appreciation of Government of India’s efforts in promoting the village as a prime tourism destination.

About:

• Meghalaya’s Kongthong village, which is also known as the “whistling village“, recently honoured Prime Minister Narendra Modi by making him part of a unique tradition that goes back centuries.
• In this village, located in the lush, rolling hills of the northeast state, everyone’s name is a melody as mothers compose a special tune for each child when it is born. Everyone in the village, inhabited by the Khasi people, then addresses the person with the individual little tune or whistle for a lifetime. They have conventional “real” names too, but they are rarely used.
• The custom of assigning tunes to residents here is known as “jingrwai lawbei“, meaning “song of the clan’s first woman”, a reference to the Khasi people’s mythical original mother.
• The Ministry of Tourism recently nominated the village for the UNWTO Best Tourism Villages Contest from India. To thanks the PM for his efforts, a tune was composed by a woman in the village in his honour.