-Livemint.com Value-addition per worker needs to rise sharply in several fields for the country to enhance prosperity and reduce inequality It is known that productivity is the key to economic prosperity. How do we raise the productivity of service workers? This is one of the biggest challenges that India faces which hasn’t yet received much attention. Why is this important? First, low and medium-productivity service sectors (services except real estate, business and professional...

-Hindustan Times Workers who have registered so far belong to diverse occupations, such as construction, apparel manufacturing, fishing, gig and platform work, street vending as well as domestic work. Nearly half of 40 million workers of the country’s informal economy registered on a recently launched national portal are women, and most workers regardless of gender are from disadvantaged castes, official data that shines new light on India’s invisible unorganised labour force shows. Trends...

-The Hindu The Government must make haste to prevent a killer disease that claims thousands of workers’ lives each year Long before COVID-19 hit, countless workers engaged in mines, construction and factories in India were silently dying of exposure to dust, utmost exploitation and apathy. They continue to do so. Rajasthan’s pioneering model One State — Rajasthan — with the top-most share of over 17% in value of mineral production in the country and...

-The Hindu The Quarterly Employment Survey for the April-June quarter throws up some perplexing numbers The Labour Bureau released the results of the All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey (QES) for the first quarter (FQ) of 2021 (April to June). The survey covers establishments employing 10 or more workers in the organised segment in nine sectors (manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurants, IT/BPO, and financial service activities). These sectors account...

-The Hindu The analysis is fraught with caveats and the interpretation of the survey results calls for caution Last week, the Ministry of Labour and Employment released the results of a new Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) for April-June 2021 for the organised (formal) sector. It represents establishments (or units) employing ten or more workers. The surveyed sectors were manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurant, Information Technology/Business Process Outsourcing (IT/BPO),...