-The Hindu Social security cover for all, even informal workers, is an ambitious target for the Centre and stumbling blocks pave its path. The Union government on Thursday proposed an ambitious law to provide social security net to the 47.41 crore-strong workforce of the country. The proposed code on ‘Social Security and Welfare’ intends to make a drastic shift in the social security framework of the country from an employment-based approach to a...

-The Indian Express The new law allows maternity leave up to 12 weeks for women who adopt a child below the age of 3 months, and for commissioning mothers (in cases of surrogacy) The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2017, passed by Parliament last week, has made 26 weeks of paid maternity leave mandatory for all women employed in the organised sector. The more than doubling of the existing entitlement of 12 weeks...

-The Indian Express GDP estimates are advance figures, but by the time they are revised only staid economists will be interested in them Unless we simply dreamt it, demonetisation delivered a massive shock to the economy in early November, which continued well into December because of slow pace remonetisation. The ensuing liquidity crunch affected most informal economic activity and some formal business, and economists generally agreed that declines in demand and disruption...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Demonetisation Demon will gouge India's economic growth in 2016-17 by at least half a percentage point, chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian told reporters after presenting the Economic Survey a day before the budget. Subramanian, who was voicing his views for the first time on the deeply polarising subject of demonetisation, rejected the dire prophecies of other Oracles, including his former employer, the International Monetary Fund, that projected...

-The Indian Express Post-demonetisation, a reversal of the slowdown would require enhanced public spending. It doesn’t appear to be forthcoming. Given the economic uncertainty around the world and the demonetisation-induced domestic downturn in the Indian economy, preparing this year’s Union budget was never going to be an easy task. But the Modi government seems determined to make its task harder. It has managed to generate expectations — that will almost inevitably remain...