-Scroll.in At a time when upper classes continue to thrive on waves of profit maximisation, the social and economic safety net of the poor has been gradually eroding. Amidst all the talk on two Bharats, are we seeing a time horizon where India’s elite may abandon the country’s poor and vulnerable? This is a question I have been contemplating about for a few months now. My curiosity peaked days after the recent Union...

-Leaflet.in/ Newsclick.in In light of the recent PIL filed before the Supreme Court demanding social security for gig/platform workers, it is critical to pay attention to how the recent labor codes, which are paraded as being progressive, are a mere lip service to social security, including for gig/platform workers, writes Namrata. In September last year, the Indian Federation of App Based Transport Workers [IFAT], a workers’ organisation consisting largely of gig transport...

-The Telegraph The Union budget is an embodiment of unequal fiscal policy The finance minister and her ministry have betrayed, once again, their lack of understanding of the Indian economy or the conditions under which most Indians are living today. Despite attempts to ‘talk up’ the supposed recovery, the economy is weak and most people are hurting. India has seen one of the biggest increases in the number of poor and hungry people...

-PTI/ The New Indian Express Private offices have also been asked to rationalize the number of employees coming to work by allowing work from home and staggering working hours. MUMBAI: Tightening restrictions in the face of surging COVID-19 cases, the Maharashtra Government on Saturday prohibited movement in public in groups of five or more from 5 in the morning to 11 at night, effective January 10 midnight. Further, no movement will be allowed...

-The Telegraph The country has an advantage that many people have two vaccines plus a past infection: Expert Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Michigan who has been tracking India’s Covid-19 epidemic for nearly two years, is now visiting her parents’ farmhouse in Ruppur near Santiniketan in Birbhum. “This is our escape and solace in the epidemic,” she said. In this interview, Mukherjee tells The Telegraph what she expects...