-Business Standard/ TheWire.in Under cover of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state government says exempting businesses from these laws will boost investment. But experts term the move an attack on fundamental rights. New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government has approved an ordinance exempting businesses from the purview of almost all labour laws for the next three years in a bid to provide a fillip to investments affected by the novel coronavirus in the...

-The Telegraph 'The base of the MGNREGA beneficiaries needs to be broadened by including more deserving people as its beneficiaries' Ranchi: The rural job guarantee law can be a saviour for scores of workers who have lost their jobs during the ongoing Lockdown and are returning to their villages, a group of social workers have underlined. Jharkhand NREGA Watch, a group of social workers who describe it as a forum of concerned citizens,...

-Mongabay.com * The nationwide Lockdown has affected the economy of India’s tribal population, which depends highly on the sale of minor forest products. * However, state governments are hoping things will become normal soon as the Lockdown norms get relaxed in the coming days. Chhattisgarh’s Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel even praised the tribal population in his state for maintaining social distancing properly. * Experts and organisations working with tribal communities demand removal or...

-The Indian Express Lockdown has led to demand destruction similar to demonetisation even for commodities such as potato and milk that were till recently in short supply While there is debate on how much the Lockdown has helped in “flattening the Covid-19 curve”, one thing is clear: It has led to a flattening of prices through a “leftward shift in the demand curve”. The best way to illustrate this is through two agricultural...

-Scroll.in Sahariya Adivasis in Madhya Pradesh have suggestions for the Modi government. Huddled under a tree in Pahadgarh at half past noon on May 2, the women seemed to be waiting patiently for their turn. Perhaps there was a bank around the corner, I wondered, and they were waiting to withdraw the Rs 500-coronavirus Lockdown allowance that the central government had sent to the bank accounts of women under the Jan Dhan...