-Livemint.com * Rural spending is the only ray of hope for a ravaged economy. But will consumers rise to the occasion? * The income loss due to 30 million migrant workers returning home is a significant hit to household finances. Moreover, covid-19 has deeply affected an already bruised consumer psyche The locked rooms lining the courtyard of Dilip Patidar’s sprawling ancestral home once smelled like a spice box. That was some years ago...
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Beyond food rations: Six ways India can ensure nutrition security for its most vulnerable people -R Gopinath & B Jayashree
-Scroll.in The country has adequate stockpiles of foodgrain. But how can it ensure a varied diet for its people during this crisis? For agricultural labourer Dhanalakshmi Manikandan, her home garden in Tamil Nadu’s Pudukkottai district has never looked more appealing. With her daily income cut of by the lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the vegetables in her garden have become a valuable part of the daily meal for her...
More »NSO will not release report showing first decline in consumer expenditure in 40 years -Somesh Jha
-TheWire.in Consumer Spending surveys help set the base year for key macroeconomic data, including gross domestic product. New Delhi: More than a month after National Statistical Commission (NSC) chairman Bimal Kumar Roy said the official survey report showing a dip in Consumer Spending for the first time in over four decades would be made public, the autonomous data body decided against releasing the report. When asked why the NSC departed from its earlier...
More »For the rural poor, a manufactured crisis -Rajendran Narayanan
-The Hindu Instead of focusing on increasing rural wages, the BJP-led government is wasting resources on the NPR and NRC The National Population Register (NPR) and a possible National Register of Citizens (NRC), which will unleash a humanitarian crisis, are being pushed at a time when rural distress is acute. With the Budget due soon, let’s look at how the BJP-led government has served the interests of the rural poor. A grim picture The...
More »With a huge informal economy, government should increase spending, not worry about deficit -Maitreesh Ghatak
-The Indian Express To get the engine of the economy revving, an expansionary fiscal policy that harnesses the energy of the informal sector to boost aggregate demand is the order of the day. That India is in the midst of a serious economic slowdown is no longer in question. The debates are now mostly about what to do about it: Whether to opt for a fiscal expansion to boost demand or to...
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