-TheWire.in The Narela industrial complex is one of the biggest in Asia, packed with booming small-scale industrial units. It runs entirely on the labour of low-income workers who have very little say on their pay and living conditions. In order to start liberalising trade and industrial production capacity through economic policy, the Indian nation-state began implementing a set of Washington Consensus style neo-liberal economic reforms in the early 1990s. The liberalisation push across...

-The Hindu Business Line Why access to capital for MSME entrepreneurs has the potential to alter India’s social fabric India’s social fabric has undergone a series of transformations since Independence. After the liberalisation of the economy in the 1990s, the market opened up and employment opportunities grew, as did the spending power and standard of living of the average Indian. As financial access grew, so did social Mobility. However, certain sections have lagged...

-Hindustan Times As the public sector has contracted, there has been no other good employer that has emerged to take its place despite the economic expansion of manufacturing and services sectors. Despite several decades of rapid growth of the private sector in India, the allure of a public sector job, historically associated with security, steady pay, and multiple benefits, continues to remain strong for most Indians. The protests following the announcement of...

The transport sector is important for the smooth functioning of an economy. The supply chains for various products and by-products (both domestically as well as internationally) can work efficiently only if the transportation of raw materials and inputs, and final goods and commodities takes place without disruption.   Due to economic growth, India’s annual CO2 (i.e., carbon dioxide) emission has expanded from 1.19 billion tonnes in 2005 to 2.44 billion tonnes...

-Down to Earth The city's inadequate drainage system results in frequent flooding, it says Kolkata in West Bengal has something to cheer about: Its much-criticised public transport system got an elaborate mention in the third instalment of the sixth assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The most significant report on the global climate crisis referred to the city’s public transport network as an “illustrative case study” to showcase integrated...