-The Telegraph/ PTI Order issued to exclude non-essential items from cart The Centre on Sunday barred e-commerce firms from selling non-essential items during the lockdown, reversing its own four-day-old order that allowed online platforms to sell mobile phones, refrigerators and readymade garments. The dismay of the e-commerce companies and the jubilation among domestic traders, considered a traditional vote bank of the ruling BJP, suggested politics has forced the Narendra Modi government to take...

Most reports and studies by official agencies, international think tanks and private entities indicate the cataclysmic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy and society. They anticipate that lockdowns imposed by various countries across the globe to reduce the exponential diffusion of COVID-19 (i.e. for flattening the curve by social distancing and quarantines) would adversely affect economic growth and disrupt supply chains in most sectors, on top of causing...

-The Indian Express A large number of migrants in the Persian Gulf come from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Philippines. The loss of income will not just affect the workers but will also echo across continents in their home countries, which receive billions of dollars in remittances every year. New Delhi: As multiple countries across the globe try to grapple with the lockdown imposed due to coronavirus pandemic, migrants in the...

-Business Standard Allows farmers to sell produce directly to retail chains, bulk buyers for 3 months Mumbai: A series of central government notifications and letters to states in the past two days will enable agri and food products to reach consumers in a timely and efficient manner. The measures include limiting jurisdiction of APMCs (Agricultural Produce Market Committees) to their physical premises, allowing big retailers and even commodity processors to buy directly from...

-The Indian Express As the national lockdown entered its second week, The Indian Express travelled across four states to track this unprecedented exodus, examine what social distancing and isolation means in towns and villages off camera and off the highway — and what could await the first COVID-19 patients here. Morena (Madhya Pradesh): They built homes, offices, even cities. They worked in technology companies. They cooked the food we ate, cleaned the...