-Press release by Working Peoples' Charter dated 21st September, 2020 Amidst the micro and macro-economic crisis of the last 5 years, the union government has aggressively pushed the agenda of labour law reforms -- purportedly to simplify India’s ‘complex’ labour legislations, improve the business environment, and augment growth and employment. These changes, driven primarily by the business fraternity, have been aimed at improving India’s ranking in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’...

-Livemint.com Despite early steps, India could not stave off the surge because of later mis-steps and legacy issues in health and administrative capacity With more than five million cases, India is now emerging as the epicentre of the covid-19 pandemic. India has already overtaken Brazil in terms of total confirmed cases, and at the current trajectory, will surpass the US within four weeks. Given that the US and Brazil are closest to India...

-GaonConnection.com Chhattisgarh has become the first state in the country to reopen its anganwadi centres amid the COVID-19 to offer health and nutrition services to kids and women After remaining shut for almost half a year, 55,000 anganwadis in Chhattisgarh reopened yesterday on September 7 to provide hot nutritious meals and health services to 1.5 million children under the age of six years, and 0.5 million pregnant and lactating women registered with...

Often exports made by a country to the rest of the world are seen in a positive light by us. It is because exports not only earn precious foreign currencies (that can be used for importing goods and services or simply be used for building forex reserves), it also helps in generating effective demand for goods and services produced in that country and hence, contributes to economic or GDP growth....

ActionAid Association's (AAA) national level survey among people dependent on the informal economy during the third phase of the national lockdown towards the end of May 2020 (i.e. between May 14th and May 22nd, 2020) has documented the "nature and extent of the transitions in the lives and livelihoods of informal workers, including migrant workers, during the pandemic and provide[s] an insight into the precarity they experience and the coping...