The pandemic's first wave had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of rural workers in Bihar (including the self-employed) last year, according to a survey based research, jointly done by economists from Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability at Monash University, Australia and the New Delhi-based Institute for Human Development. A recent press note issued by the authors of the study shows that almost 94.4 percent of the households participating...

-The Telegraph This year, a combination of factors is hurting the agriculture sector immensely A quiet, reverse transformation is happening in the countryside, and it is disconcerting. This sowing season, growing numbers of farmers are falling back on their bullocks as fuel prices are piercing the roof. The tractor, the symbol of modern farming, is becoming a luxury in the literal sense. The conventional ploughing equipment tied to bullocks costs only a...

-ThePrint.in The likelihood of financial distress caused by the 2nd wave is much higher & it could lead to more outright sales of gold, unlike in 2020, when people chose to take out loans against gold. Mumbai: Paul Fernandes, a 50-year-old waiter in India, last year took out a loan using his gold as collateral to pay for his children’s education after losing his job on a cruise liner. This year, he...

The recent Supreme Court of India’s judgments (please click here and here) related to ensuring food security of the migrant and unorganised sector workers through the provision of dry ration, running of community kitchens and proper implementation of the 'One Nation One Ration Card' scheme should come as no surprise to us. A recent review of some of the robust studies, which relied on multi-state surveys (or reference surveys), having...

-TheFederal.com Dalberg research finds women from low-income sections were first to lose jobs and last to regain them due to COVID disruptions While the pandemic was tough on the nation’s poor, the women from the low-income section were dealt a harder blow, research has revealed. As a cash crunch hit household expenses, women’s nutrition, health and employment were the worst hit and the last to recover. A study by consulting firm Dalberg —...