-Society for Social and Economic Research Monograph 20/3 Key Messages Lack of planning and preparation by the Central government for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a massive blow to India’s economy and has caused enormous hardships to working people of the country. Harvesting of Rabi crops • Unplanned and sudden imposition of the lockdown resulted in a massive and unprecedented disruption to agricultural activities such as harvesting, sale of agricultural produce, and purchase...

-The Hindu Not only are the States not paid what is due to them, they have also lost the powers to raise their own sales tax revenues Karur MP S Jothimani recently conducted a telephonic survey of 30 lakh people in Tamil Nadu on the re-opening of liquor shops in the State during lockdown 3.0. An overwhelming 89% were opposed to the move. The Maharashtra government too decided to permit liquor shops to...

-The Hindu For employers, availability of skilled workforce and worker-management ties are more vital Some State governments including Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) and Madhya Pradesh (M.P.) have proposed ordinances to exempt manufacturing establishments from the purview of most labour laws. In a discussion moderated by Suresh Seshadri, Amit Basole (Associate Professor of Economics, Azim Premji Unversity, Bengaluru) and K.R. Shyam Sundar (Professor of Human Resource Management, XLRI, Jamshedpur) look at the backdrop for...

-The Indian Express Mani Shankar Aiyar writes: Planning for withstanding the ingress of COVID-19 requires the full deployment of the mechanisms for district planning envisaged in Article 243 ZD involving all three tiers of the panchayats and the municipalities brought together in the district planning committee An unintended but welcome consequence of the struggle against COVID-19 is that the “confrontational federalism” that has characterised the Centre’s relations with the states, especially those...

-Hindustan Times The government officials quoted the data, released by the Central government-run Tribal cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), to highlight that Chhattisgarh’s purchase has been the highest in the country to alleviate the plight of the state’s poor forest dwellers and tribal villagers, who are dependent on the MFP for their livelihood. Raipur: Chhattisgarh government has announced that it has topped the country in the purchase of minor forest...