-Down to Earth With an estimated 85 million jobs to be lost to automation by 2025, the development divide is set to deepen One year into the novel coonavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, crowds returning to markets bring us a sense of normalcy returning to our lives. But there is an uncomfortable feeling that continues to hit us. From the neighbourhood grocery shop to the shopping malls, the thinning of the employed workforce is...

-IndiaSpend.com More younger workers, and women, lost jobs and struggled to recover them. Even after employment rates recovered, quality of employment deteriorated, with individuals moving into less secure self-employment in agriculture, construction and small-scale trade. Bengaluru: The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered a large and sustained economic shock to the global economy. In India, the effect can be broadly divided into two phases--the shock of the nationwide lockdown in the months of April...

-The Indian Express The current scenario is ideal for policymakers and practitioners to drive home the importance of health spending and institutional development With the first batch of anti-COVID vaccines being rolled out, the mood of the nation seems to be upbeat as it bids farewell to the pain and anguish of last year. The emergency-use approval to the vaccine developed by Oxford University and the Swedish-British pharma major AstraZeneca, manufactured in...

-The Indian Express As the problem of non-performing assets persists in a sector stressed by the pandemic, the RBI Governor has agreed to look at a proposal for creating a bad bank. What are the arguments for and against the concept? Mumbai, New Delhi: The idea of setting up a bad bank to resolve the growing problem of non-performing assets (NPAs), or loans on which borrowers have defaulted, is back on the...

-The Hindu Without regulation, the situation could spiral out of control Recently, a professor at a business school allegedly misused his faculty position to provide fake certificates to students whom he had compelled to attend an online course that he taught. He essentially took advantage of India’s rising pre-pandemic gig economy in education. When authorities at the institution discovered the racket, they suspended him. This is a cautionary tale for the global...