-The Indian Express As we grapple with a health, economic and humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, the immediate need is to provide emergency relief to cushion the effects of the dual shocks of the virus and lockdown on informal workers. COVID-19 is causing havoc across the world, destroying both lives and livelihoods. Developing countries such as India are particularly vulnerable as their vast informal workforce, which has no labour, social or health...

-Vikalp.ind.in The unplanned countrywide COVID-19 lockdown has resulted in widespread distress to both principal classes among the rural population namely the peasants and agricultural workers. Peasants suffered in the first place from crop losses due to unplanned lockdown induced delay in harvesting of mechanised crops. Apart from this an additional problem for peasants was the elevated fluctuation in prices (fall in nominal prices more often than not) of both crops and...

-The Telegraph Govt should ensure infection did not slip into green zones Some public experts, while acknowledging India’s early initiatives to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, have expressed concern about what they believe are signals of inadequate planning and poorly coordinated responses to the pandemic. The Telegraph had requested former Union health secretary Kanuru Sujatha Rao, who had spent in the health sector 20 of her 36 years as an IAS...

-TheWire.in In the month of April 2020, 34 lakh households were provided work compared to 1.7 crore in April of 2019, a decline of 86%. New Delhi: Only 20% of the number of people who were provided work in April 2019 were employed in April 2020 under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), according to official government data. In the month of April 2020, 34 lakh households were provided work...

-The Indian Express Citizens ordinarily advocating for free markets are now urging the governments to open up its coffers In the years after the Second World War, financial crises were frequent. But the current contagion has thrown many countries off guard. There is little or no experience to guide countries on how to tackle such an epidemic. The only alternative, widely adopted now, has been to suspend business as usual and coerce...