-The Indian Express Latest RBI bulletin projects contraction for a second consecutive quarter, which means the economy is in a ‘technical recession’. What does it mean, and how is it different from a ‘recession’ and a ‘recessionary phase’? In its latest monthly bulletin — for November — the Reserve Bank of India has dedicated a chapter on the “State of the economy”. The idea is to provide a monthly snapshot of some...

-The Hindu It can be made workable if there is political will and fiscal resources As economies around the world struggle to recover from the double whammy of a pandemic and a lockdown, unemployment is soaring. In India, the land of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the promise of jobs and the politics of unemployment have a long history. Can a citizen demand work as a right, and...

-The Hindu Bringing digital media under the I&B Ministry nips in the bud the promise of combative journalism The government’s move bringing online news and current affairs portals along with “films and audio-visual programmes made available by online content providers” under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is as brazen as it is wily. Brazen, because this is an attack on the free press, targeted at a section that has been bold and...

-The Hindu Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan 3.0 includes scheme to incentivise new recruitment. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a fresh set of relief and stimulus measures for the economy worth ₹1.19 lakh crore, including a scheme to boost re-employment chances of formal sector employees who lost their jobs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures, announced a day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the country had entered into a...

-The Indian Express The RBI, however, said the economy will break out of contraction of the six months gone by and return to positive growth in the October-December quarter of 2020-21. Mumbai: The Indian economy likely entered into a technical recession for the first time in history at the end of the first half of 2020-21, according to the Reserve Bank of India. After an unprecedented decline of 23.9 per cent in GDP...