-Society for Social and Economic Research Monograph 20/3 Key Messages Lack of planning and preparation by the Central government for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a massive blow to India’s economy and has caused enormous hardships to working people of the country. Harvesting of Rabi crops • Unplanned and sudden imposition of the lockdown resulted in a massive and unprecedented disruption to agricultural activities such as harvesting, sale of agricultural produce, and purchase...

-The Hindu Business Line The country must now usher in a new era of development for the dairy sector, by building procurement infrastructure in milk deficit States and adopting appropriate technology in these regions World Milk Day was established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on June 1, 2001, to recognise the importance of milk as a global food. This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of World Milk Day. This...

-The Telegraph 2019-20 economic growth tumbles to 4.2% India’s economic growth has tumbled to a 12-year low of 4.2 per cent in 2019-20. What is even worse is that this statistic barely reflects the impact of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, which has silenced the clangour in its factories for over two months. The lockdown began on March 25 — barely a week before the close of the financial year. “Due to a contraction in investment of...

-The Hindu Instead of embracing the welfare state path, the BJP government is encouraging greater privatisation The novel coronavirus is a global threat, but the pandemic has had an uneven impact across countries and within countries. Historically, social inequality has always been extreme in India. However, the lockdown has sharpened the edges of inequality even further, especially because of the way it has been implemented. Many countries have imposed lockdowns but not...

-The Hindu A stronger health system in a country can lead to better outcomes on the economic growth front When public health sneezes, the economy catches cold. Dire predictions for the post-COVID-19 Global Economy have come from the International Monetary Fund, which called the present crisis the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Grim forebodings for the Indian economy have been sounded by many distinguished economists and the Governor of the Reserve...