-The Indian Express The Act was enacted to prevent the exploitation of inter-state migrant workmen by contractors, and to ensure fair and decent conditions of employment. The fallout of the lockdown in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 highlights the urgent need to rationalise the legislative framework for labour in India. Migrant labour has been among the worst affected due to the lockdown. Their efforts to leave the cities before the...

-The Hindu Business Line The vague legal definition of ‘worker’ sabotages inclusive and eligible delivery of welfare to all workers during the pandemic The Covid-19 health emergency has disrupted trade, mobility and livelihood in unimaginable ways. The magnitude of the crisis grows manifold when social and economic shutdowns accompany it, and the uncertainties of livelihood, wage loss and lay-offs might last longer than expected as Covid-19 has hit almost all sectors. To...

-Newslaundry.com Any company in India wanting to do business without being disturbed needs to be in the good books of the government. In the post-Covid world, companies are looking to cut costs in order to survive. They have been doing so in various ways. Some of the popular ways in the Indian context are: 1) Cutting salaries of employees. 2) Putting any fresh recruitment on hold. 3) Putting increments on hold. 4) Putting variable payouts on...

-The New Indian Express Holding migrants where they are is a bad idea, even from the point of view of containing the coronavirus crisis, says economist Jean Dreze in a wide-ranging interview with our Editor GS Vasu. HYDERABAD: With under a week to go for the present lockdown to end, it is an indisputable fact that thousands of migrant workers are stuck in cities across India, unable to get home. Continuing to...

Most reports and studies by official agencies, international think tanks and private entities indicate the cataclysmic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy and society. They anticipate that lockdowns imposed by various countries across the globe to reduce the exponential diffusion of COVID-19 (i.e. for flattening the curve by social distancing and quarantines) would adversely affect economic growth and disrupt supply chains in most sectors, on top of causing...