-Livemint.com * Increased government spending on the rural jobs programme has also aided returnee migrants * The urban job loss rate fell nearly 2 percentage points to 11.19% in the week ended 21 June over the previous week The timely arrival of the monsoon has given a much-needed boost to rural employment, absorbing thousands of migrant workers who have returned to their rural homes in seasonal farm jobs. The rural unemployment rate continued to...

-The Hindu Even as COVID-19 cases and deaths are rapidly rising in the capital, the AAP government is grappling with complaints of under-reporting, inadequate facilities and exploitative private hospitals. Nikhil M. Babu reports on how it frittered away an opportunity to ramp up healthcare facilities during the lockdown period On February 29 afternoon, when 45-year-old Rohit Dutta walked into the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi to take a COVID-19 test,...

-Hindustan Times Release the consumption survey. And ramp up research The Indian economy is set to contract this year. Economic policy must have two clear objectives. It must do all it can to ensure growth revival. And until that happens, the State must ensure that the poor are able to maintain at least basic standards of living. Achieving these goals requires detailed information about the economy. What were household incomes before the...

-Scroll.in As migrant workers return to the region, the number of cases is rising – as is the backlog of tests. On Sunday morning, June 7, the chief medical officer of Jaunpur district sat in his office, shooting muffled instructions to his staff from behind his N-95 mask. “Arrange 10 mattresses quickly,” he told a man who tentatively stood next to his desk. “We need to prepare 100 beds immediately.” “Why have 25 thalis...

-TheWire.in “The opening of the markets would bring no respite to us. There would be hardly any sales during the festive months due to financial doom," said a weaver in Dhaniekhali. Kolkata: Raju Singha Rao, a handloom sari weaver at Phulia in West Bengal’s Nadia district, has been having sleepless nights since the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24. The financial crisis coupled with thoughts of starvation and hunger has been keeping...