-The Hindu Forest communities are being seen as the primary Drivers of denudation during lockdown, while we continue to ignore the impacts of fast-tracked environmental clearances for dams and mines A photograph of a young man, presumably tribal, or a returning migrant, or both, with the carcasses of two hares slung over his shoulder, was recently emblazoned on the cover of a report by a reputed wildlife NGO. The report — based...
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India’s descent into stepwells of growth -Kaushik Basu
-Livemint.com * Poor handling of the pandemic threatens to derail our competitive advantage in the global economy * India’s economy is well-positioned in IT and outsourcing; health and pharma; and higher education and research, which are sectors expected to be leading Drivers of global growth NEW YORK: India’s economy is in a downward spiral. The Economist Intelligence Unit just lowered the forecast for India’s growth in the coming year from -5.8% to -8.5%....
More »Wanted: An urban equivalent of MGNREGA -Amit Basole and Rakshita Swamy
-Down to Earth Such a programme is the need of the hour not only as a measure to revive the urban economy now, but also to mitigate any further shocks to it in the future The collective memory of how India lived through the world’s largest lockdown will be seared by images of how our state and society dealt with the country’s workers. Left largely to fend for themselves, millions living in...
More »Contours of post-Covid economy suggest a new framework of employment -Ashish Kundra
-The Indian Express The current crisis should force a discussion on the levels of social protection which should be available to gig workers including wage protection, health benefits and safety assurance. COVID-19 has induced a domino effect in the global job market. A few days ago, a strange message landed in my LinkedIn inbox: Desperation was written all over the poignant plea for a job opening. Jobless since March, with an aged...
More »The indispensability of labour in reviving India’s economic engine -Maitreesh Ghatak
-Hindustan Times To enable their return to cities, improve wages, living conditions, safety net. Coercion won’t work Migrant workers are like nowhere people. Yet, they are everywhere. From high-rises to highways, who builds them? It is a silent army of migrant workers, working day and night with no job security, no social safety net, and poor living conditions — yet, theirs are not the names we see on the billboards or the...
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