-Scroll.in Frustrated by rules they see as onerous, a bunch of beauticians are speaking up – and sometimes being heard. Nidhi Chander* was full of hope until five years ago. That was when she gave up her job as a beautician at a unisex salon in Pitampura, Delhi, where she was earning Rs 20,000 a month, to work with Urban Clap. She believed the home services start-up would give her the freedoms...

-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...

After the outbreak of COVID-19 in China during early January this year and its dissemination globally within a few days, health experts have suggested ways to check its spread exponentially among the rest of the population. In the age of internet connectivity, work-from-home and self-isolation have been advised as solutions to ensure social distancing and avoid large-scale social gatherings. Experts have asked governments and private enterprises to keep people at...

-Outlook The sorts of corruption that matter are a purview of privileged     “An intellectual man can be a good man but he may easily be a rogue. Similarly an intellectual class may be a band of high-souled persons, ready to help, ready to emancipate erring humanity, or it may easily be a gang of crooks or a body of advocates of narrow clique from which it draws its support.”     —B.R....

-The Indian Express The export-import policy for farm products needs to be consistent and predictable Sal seeds are obtained from Orissa-based tribals for money that would not compensate them for even the cost of a bus ride to the state capital Bhubaneswar. The produce is, however, valuable as it is converted to sal seed butter, used in Europe by the chocolate industry. But one of the world’s fastest-growing chocolate markets, India, does...