-Article-14.com India’s 380 million informal workers will be registered on a new database that will allow, says the government, social security payments. It isn’t working as it should because the government insists on Aadhaar, which many workers do not have. Others do not know of it, and if they do, may not be digitally literate, and it isn’t clear what entitlements will follow for workers whose data are being collected. New Delhi:...
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The curious case of Meghalaya’s COVID-19 relief package -Rakshita Swamy and Angela Rangad
-The Hindu Audits, transparency and citizen-centric accountability need to be a part of fund support and disbursement Every COVID-19 wave in India has brought us face to face with the dire precarity of life and livelihood for India’s vast numbers of unorganised workers, and the inadequate response of the state and society to their plight. The latest global OXFAM inequality report highlights how India’s billionaires have grown dramatically in numbers and wealth,...
More »Budget: Digital Models and Catchphrases Cannot Dissolve Inequality -Dipa Sinha
-TheWire.in Presenting a budget, especially in the midst of an economic crisis, is an opportunity to communicate a government's vision for the country. This budget fails to do that and seems to be completely disconnected from ground realities. It seems as if the Union finance minister, this year, took the idea of a paperless budget so literally that she has attempted to find digital solutions to most of the country’s problems. The ‘Amrit...
More »India’s informal economy has not shrunk -Santosh Mehrotra and Kingshuk Sarkar
-The Hindu An SBI Research study’s claim that there is greater formalisation of the economy is unfounded According to a recent State Bank of India (SBI) Research report, the informal economy in India has been shrinking since 2018. Formalisation, the report says, has taken place through the gross value-added (GVA) route, consumption through increased Digital Payments, and the employment route. Let’s examine each of these. The report claims that the share of the...
More »Five years since demonetisation: What has changed? -Roshan Kishore
-Hindustan Times While demonetisation was subsequently described as a policy boost to promoting Digital Payments, the original policy had very different stated targets. November 8, 2021 marks five years of demonetisation in India. On this day in 2016, in a televised address at 8 pm, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that currency notes of ₹500 and ₹1000 -- these two denominations were 86% of the currency in circulation at the time in...
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