-The Hindu Business Line Maharashtra farmers seek concret exim policy Pune: The US and Japan have dragged India to the World Trade Organization over the frequent ban it imposes on onion exports. Both countries have alleged that the export ban without prior notice create problems for importing countries. This, in turn, has resulted in Maharashtra onion growers demanding that the Centre draft a comprehensive policy on the import and export of onion, instead...

-Scroll.in The sharp drop in GDP is the largest in the country’s history – and even that may well underestimate the economic damage experienced by the poorest households. From April to June 2020, India’s GDP dropped by a massive 24.4%. According to the latest national income estimates, in the second quarter of the 2020-’21 financial year (July-September 2020), the economy contracted by a further 7.4%, with the third and fourth quarters (October...

-Livemint.com The lack of jobs is forcing many people to stop looking for one and thus drop out of the workforce. Here’s the good news first. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate for June 2021 fell to 9.17%. It was at 11.9% in May. The following chart plots the unemployment rate since January 2016, the period for which this data is available. As can be seen from...

-Livemint.com The aim is to enrol nearly 380 mn workers and provide them benefits during times of distress The Union government will roll out the unorganized sector database by the end of July to enrol almost 380 million workers, weeks after the Supreme Court rapped the labour ministry, saying that it showed “unpardonable" apathy towards workers in the informal sector. The development comes more than a year after the mass reverse migration of...

-TheWire.in Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Jayati Ghosh, says over the last 16 months of the pandemic the government’s handling of the economic crisis has been cruel and incompetent. One of India’s well-known and highly regarded economists has said the government’s refusal to provide income support to the unemployed and poor and instead asking them to take government guaranteed loans which the Chief Economic Advisor has said...