-The Hindu India slid into the pandemic crisis in the backdrop of economic downslide; fiscal stimulus has to be structured The impact of COVID-19 will be debilitating for the global as well as the Indian economies. Various institutions have assessed India’s growth prospects for 2020-21 ranging from 0.8% (Fitch) to 4.0% (Asian Development Bank). This wide range indicates the extent of uncertainty and tentative nature of these forecasts. The International Monetary Fund...

-Scroll.in Emotion and grand political statements may normally distract and attract voters. In a crisis, they are poor substitutes for governance. It is now 41 days since the government told the Supreme Court that there were no migrant workers on the road any more. “They have been taken to the nearest available shelter”, and 2.3 million were being fed, India’s Solicitor General told the judges, who – in a now familiar routine...

-Scroll.in The migrant exodus will undoubtedly hurt the Economy. But that is no excuse for forced labour. The Indian government’s policies towards its vulnerable migrant worker population were already a mess. This week, Karnataka made it worse. The Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state decided to cancel trains that would allow working-class people from other states to return to their homes five weeks after a national lockdown to combat Covid-19 left them stranded, often without...

-PTI/ The Hindu Business Line Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector is on the verge of collapse, and urged major industries to release the outstanding dues to such companies within a month. He said that the position of MSMEs was the “worst” as they were now engaged in a “battle for their survival”. The Minister also noted that the pendency of dues owed...

-Business Standard Farmers allowed to sell 46 fruits and vegetables directly without bringing them to mandis After allowing FPOs to directly procure from farmers, Uttar Pradesh has announced another set of reforms to its Mandi Act. The state joins the long list of domains that have used the Covid-19 crisis to make changes in their APMC rules in order to facilitate direct procurement from farmers. Please click here to read more. ...