-The Hindu They say several crucial laws have been amended to tilt the balance in favour of industries Bengaluru: As the State government unveiled the New Industrial Policy, 2020–25, to attract investors, trade unions are protesting over the manner in which several crucial labour laws have been amended to tilt the balance in favour of industries. The sweeping changes brought to Factories Act, Industrial Disputes Act, and Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act,...

-Newsclick.in Sundar believes this will result in the creation of “regional labour markets”, which will lead to “a race to reach the bottom of labour standards” among the states. The Congress-led Punjab government will soon bring an ordinance and become the latest state to effect labour law reforms, including eased retrenchment norms in the state, in a move that can be seen as following in the BJP’s footsteps to jump ranks in...

-The Hindu There is a resonance between Saramago’s literary world and the migrant labour distress in contemporary India The novel, Blindness, by Portuguese Nobel Laureate José Saramago, is strikingly prescient about a sweeping illness. The plot revolves around a mysterious epidemic because of which people suddenly turn blind. The thread It starts with a person driving his car who turns blind while waiting at a traffic signal. He pleads to be taken home and...

A recent survey that was conducted through telephonic interviews among 1,405 respondents across the states of Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan and Jharkhand reveals the precarious conditions of workers nearly 45 days after the announcement of COVID-19 lockdown. The report entitled Labouring Lives: Hunger, Precarity and Despair amid Lockdown tries to understand the extent (and depth) of job loss and hunger 45 days after the lockdown. Hunger and...

-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...