A report by the Azim Premji University showed that during the pandemic 270 million Indians were pushed into poverty. Meaning that they were not poor according to the government poverty line before, but have become now. Aakar Patel mulls on the state of the nation as the Modi government enters its eighth year.
'The cost of the lockdown so far is the loss of about 11 million jobs.' 'It is important that a fresh lockdown does not make this worse,' asserts Mahesh Vyas.
We will find it difficult to exceed an average of 5 per cent growth in the medium term, warns Shankar Acharya, the former chief economic adviser.
Keeping the employment rate from slipping is challenging. To merely keep the employment rate unchanged, the economy has to generate additional jobs. It needs to run to stay where it is, points out Mahesh Vyas.
New businesses have been secured from the public and private sectors, as well as domestic and international markets.
It took a lockdown for us in India to even recognise that the plight of migrants needs to be addressed. They were faceless and unrecognised. They were unappreciated and even hounded. They were poorly paid and exploited, notes Ramesh Menon.
S&P Global Ratings has forecast India's economy to shrink by 5 per cent in the current fiscal. It, however, has projected GDP growth to be 8.5 per cent in 2021-22 and 6.5 per cent in 2022-23.
'The economic impact of this lockdown is evidently huge.' 'Its impact on the livelihood of vulnerable sections of the society is immeasurably bigger,' observes Mahesh Vyas.
Labour reforms have been pending in India for long.
'COVID-19 is just an excuse to pass anti-labour laws.'
Virat Kohli and Mayank Agarwal hit half-centuries to help India post 264 for five, on Day 1 of the second Test against West Indies.
India's unemployed, the report said, were mostly those with higher education degrees and the young.
'Modi personally provides the higher direction of the ministry and the minister then works with bureaucrats on implementation,' points out Aakar Patel.
Around 700 migrant workers, women and children have lost their lives in this reverse migration. But what is happening today with the migrant labour is only a continuation of the policies pursued by the Modi regime during the last six years. It is not for nothing that India was ranked the most dangerous country in the world for women in 2018 by the Thompson Reuters Foundation poll, points out Rashme Sehgal.
'You can't take jobs to people, you have to take people to jobs.'
A conducive labour situation could also help push the nation's per capita income to a $4,100 (around Rs 1,87,554 at an exchange rate of Rs 45.74 per dollar) by 2025, according to the 'India Labour Report 2009', released in partnership with IIJT Education.
Employment data are currently estimated once in five years through a sample survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation.
Nearly 31 million Indians are unemployed and looking for jobs. While economic growth has been humming along, the pace of job creation has been poor. A revealing excerpt from Dev Kar's India: Still A Shackled Giant.
'The Indian State needs to focus on healthcare, education, infrastructure and law and order, and get out of all these regulatory cholesterols.' 'Then, India will fly.'
As the country launches itself on a higher growth trajectory but with rising unemployment, a report says that unemployability is a bigger crisis than unemployment. "About 53 per cent of employed youth suffer some degree of skill deprivation while only 8 per cent of youth are unemployed," says India Labour Report 2007.
India's labour laws have become less complicated with bold economic reforms and the over one billion population has become a potential human resource 'asset' in the nation's leap forward, a labour lawyer has said.
The earlier forecast expected to see 654 million working Indians overall by the fiscal year ending 2022.
IMF expects growth to pick up to 7.2 per cent.
Pakistan won the other semi-final beating South Korea 2-0.
Rising unemployment rate reflects a rise in the labour participation rate, which in India's case has been worryingly low.
Indian employers reported the strongest hiring plans while the weakest Asia Pacific forecast was reported in mainland China.
Investors have another reason to wrinkle their noses at emerging economies - fading labour productivity.
Violence is just too stark, too TRP friendly and so it gets a lot of attention in the media. But the crime of discrimination is much worse because it is much greater, it attracts no attention and it has no recourse, says Mahesh Vyas.
He said his party wants to eradicate corruption and if "Modiji takes any step against the menace, the Congress party will lend its hundred per cent support".
There is no doubt that archaic labour laws governing employment of contract labour have fanned tensions at the workplace and need to be amended.
India's informal economy and service sector accounts for over three-fifths of its $1.8 trillion economy.
Enabling labour to become more globally mobile can produce higher remittances with powerful 'brain gain' dividends.
The construction sector is now India's second-largest employer after agriculture, the trend coinciding with India's high-growth phase and decline in poverty levels
One solution to India's challenges of education, employment, employability lies in state governments adopting apprenticeships on a large scale.
Splendid bowling by Stuart Binny and Mohit Sharma helped India beat Bangladesh by 47 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method, in a rain-curtailed second One-day International, and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, in Mirpur, on Tuesday.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances