-TheWire.in Unlike China which supported productivity-enhancing R&D investments, India’s focus has been on politically-driven subsidies that mainly benefit large farmers. We saw the trailer two years ago. TV news visuals of the plight of thousands of rural poor marching to Mumbai shocked the relatively affluent residents of India’s financial capital. The March 2018 Maharashtra farmers’ march and now the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown-triggered migrant exodus has exposed the stark duality of India –  an...

-IndiaSpend.com Bengaluru: In the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic and two months of stringent lockdown, India now faces the crises of unemployment and business closure, particularly in the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSMEs) sector. A new report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) has proposed that MSME recovery can be speeded along by: * Identifying micro, small and...

-The Hindu India risks losing benefits of the demographic dividend by not creating enough jobs for new entrants, warns Professor Mehrotra. Santosh K Mehrotra, Professor of Economics at the Centre for Informal Sector & Labour Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University and author of the recently launched book Reviving Jobs: An Agenda For Growth said the current reverse migration has set the country back by 15 years, and stressed that the economic stimulus...

-The Indian Express As we grapple with a health, economic and humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, the immediate need is to provide emergency relief to cushion the effects of the dual shocks of the virus and lockdown on informal workers. COVID-19 is causing havoc across the world, destroying both lives and livelihoods. Developing countries such as India are particularly vulnerable as their vast informal workforce, which has no labour, social or health...

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...