-The Hindu India faces challenges linked to infrastructure and skill sets; and its policies are unpredictable The border clashes with China and the COVID-19 Pandemic have reignited questions about India’s dependence on Chinese manufacturing. India’s imports from China in 2019-2020 reached $65 billion, out of $81 billion two-way trade. Is the Pandemic, as Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said last month, a “blessing in disguise” for Indian manufacturing? Will companies be able to...

-Frontline.in The government uses specious arguments on COVID deaths and recoveries in comparison with other countries to cover up for its ill-thought-out strategies. On June 1, while briefing the media, the Joint Secretary (Health), Lav Agarwal, presented several PowerPoint graphs showing how India’s handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic was on a par with, if not better than, many countries vis-a-vis mortality and recovery rates. This was on a day when the number...

-Hindustan Times Release the consumption survey. And ramp up research The Indian economy is set to contract this year. Economic policy must have two clear objectives. It must do all it can to ensure growth revival. And until that happens, the State must ensure that the poor are able to maintain at least basic standards of living. Achieving these goals requires detailed information about the economy. What were household incomes before the...

-ThePrint.in The RRAG report listed states and cases that were registered against journalists for their stories on PPE shortage, food distribution and alleged corruption among others. New Delhi: As many as 55 journalists have been targeted for covering the Pandemic in India between 25 March, when lockdown was first imposed, and 31 May, a report by Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) released Monday says. Journalists faced arrest, registration of FIRs, summons or...

-Hindustan Times Move beyond State-market, rural-urban, agri-non agri and welfare-growth binaries. They are linked This has been a difficult three months for India. The policy response to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and the lockdown has forced it to confront long-ignored realities about the Indian economy — its fragility, regional and spatial concentration and deep structural inequity. It also made visible sources of precarious resilience. Agriculture and associated supply chains, for instance, held...