-The Hindu The trend across developing countries is to give State governments as much discretion as possible India urgently needs to increase fiscal support for COVID-19 relief and rebuilding. Among comparable developing countries with similar Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, India has spent the least as a share of its GDP. While the Central government has announced MEAsures amounting to 0.8% of GDP, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that State-level relief...

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...

-TheWire.in New Delhi shouldn’t ignore the interests of developing economies over worries that the funds may be used for ‘extraneous reasons’. The global economy is in the grip of an unprecedented crisis, once never experienced before in its history. The virus pandemic has yet to run its course in most countries, but MEAnwhile, the containment MEAsures – which have involved major restrictions on mobility, gatherings and economic activity – have already imposed...

-India Spend Team The public distribution system (PDS) is MEAnt to play a key role in disbursing government support to the poorest Indians during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. However, the system leaves more than 100 million people excluded from its reach, as per academics Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera and Meghana Mungikar, because the central government uses 2011 population figures from the last census to calculate state-wise PDS coverage. Under the National Food...

-The Indian Express Coronavirus (COVID-19): The report released by a volunteer group has pointed to the scale of the hunger crisis and economic distress among migrant workers stranded in cities. WITH the nationwide lockdown extended till May 3, a report released by a volunteer group has pointed to the scale of the hunger crisis and economic distress among migrant workers stranded in cities. Since March 27, two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi...