-Newsclick.in GDP recovery from the lockdown-induced abyss is accompanied by significant labour displacement and squeeze on wages, which will impact aggregate demand. Ministers from Narendra Modi to Nirmala Sitharaman are talking about a recovery of the Indian economy from the pandemic-induced crisis. Even the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which estimated the second quarter GDP growth to have been -8.6%, has seen signs of recovery in October. Of course, there had to be...

-Newsclick.in The PM’s claim that greater cash use is associated with less transparency and hence a larger black economy is baseless, as is his assertion that cash use in India has fallen. On the fourth anniversary of demonetisation (November 8), Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed that it succeeded in curbing black money. He probably believes he can get away with making this claim because of the passage of time. But most...

-Newsclick.in Two taxes – inheritance and wealth -- alone, levied only on the top 1% of the population, would be enough to fetch Rs.14.67 lakh crore. It is often believed that the ability to pass on property to one’s progeny is an essential element of capitalism, without which the capitalists’ incentives will dry up and the system will lose its dynamism. Nothing could be further from the truth; indeed the acquisition of...

-NetworkIdeas.org The International Labour Organization (ILO) has for some months been bringing out a report that monitors the impact of the pandemic on the world economy, especially the labour-hours lost because of the lockdown and their ramifications. The statistics it provides are not compilations of official data from different countries; they are based on the ILO’s own estimates made with whatever information is available from these countries. One cannot say how...

-Newsclick.in The significant fall in government expenditure during the lockdown is just the opposite of what the Modi government should have done. A striking aspect of the 24% decline in India’s GDP in the first quarter of 2020-21 compared with the first quarter of the last fiscal year is the decline by 10.3% in public administration, defence and other public services. This is a sector where the GDP (gross domestic product) is...