Preliminary findings of a survey among 3,994 respondents from 11 states reveal that most vulnerable households and communities, such as SCs, STs, OBCs, PVTGs, slum dwellers, daily wage labourers, farmers, single women headed households, etc. continue to witness depressed incomes during September-October in comparison to their income levels prior to the lockdown. The face-to-face survey conducted by the Right to Food Campaign and Center for Equity Studies (instead of telephonic...

-Livemint.com * The spike in auto-debit failures suggest that the pain may have only just begun for India’s small borrowers * With mandatory EMI repayments kicking in since September, many feel the available recast options and a waiver of compound interest are not sufficient. India may be staring at a loan crisis MUMBAI: For someone who had never defaulted on any loans before March this year, Monica Keerthi Karri gets quite harried at...

-The Indian Express No doubt, with these laws, agricultural operations may become more efficient, but they threaten to lead to the marginalisation of the farmers. In other words, agriculture may flourish, but agriculturists could perish. The farmers’ agitation is unique in many ways. One, it is a coming together of 31 ideologically competing organisations. Two, it has successfully purged itself of the influence and interference of the established political parties as reflected...

-The Hindu Slashing public expenditure amid a recession is a recipe for serious economic disaster The National Statistical Office (NSO) recently announced estimates of economic activity in the second quarter of the current financial year. As most of the first quarter coincided with the lockdown announced by the Central government, it would only have been expected that output would be depressed as production could not have taken place. And this is what...

-The Hindu The labour codes will only better India’s ‘ease of doing business’ ranking instead of improving conditions of employment In an interview with The Hindu in October this year, the Union Labour Minister claimed that the four labour codes would generate employment and secure the basic rights of the workers. He also claimed that the labour codes seek to universalise the right to minimum wage of workers and social security entitlements....