Factories are shutting down owing to a shortage of labour and raw materials, and a lack of logistical support amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown against the coronavirus pandemic.
'The impact of economic shocks on the labour markets is usually on the young who delay their entry in response to a fall in job opportunities,' says Mahesh Vyas.
HR Guru Mayank Rautela offers practical advice.
India's merchandise exports in October surged 42.33 per cent to $35.47 billion on the back of good performance by the engineering and petroleum sectors, as per provisional data released by the government on Monday. The exports stood at $24.92 billion in October 2020 and $26.23 billion in October 2019. "India's merchandise exports in October 2021 was $35.47 billion, an increase of 42.33 per cent over $24.92 billion in October 2020 and an increase of 35.21 per cent over $26.23 billion in October 2019," as per an official statement.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a statewide curfew for 15 days from 8 am on April 14 to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus in its second wave. With Section 144 being imposed across the state, Thackeray essential services have been exempted from the restrictions. The curfew will be in place till 7 am on May 1.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said that whether the fire at the Serum Institute of India (SII) was an accident or sabotage will be known only after the probe gets over.
'Agri reforms need to go beyond the limited concerns of these three laws in improving agriculture productivity in cereal and crop diversification and production patterns.'
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's office on Tuesday said the Uttar Pradesh government has demanded that the 1,000 buses the party wants to ply for ferrying migrant labourers back to the state be handed over in Lucknow on Tuesday morning and alleged that the move is politically motivated. It also alleged that the demand shows that the UP government lacks the intention to help those stranded at the state's borders.
If the central banks act harshly now, the markets will crash and then rally. If they are hesitant, the pain will be prolonged, predicts Debashis Basu.
The stage of alert will be based on positivity rate (on two consecutive days), cumulative number of new cases (over a week) and average oxygenated-bed occupancy (for a week).
An opportunity to enter a burgeoning sector at a low valuation and favourable policies are propelling some of India's largest corporate groups to scoop up drone start-ups. "Indian corporations lost the race in aerospace and space tech. "No one wants to miss the bus this time. "These are seasoned businessmen and they realise that the market cap of tech companies with problem-solving capabilities will exponentially rise in future," says Vipul Singh, CEO of Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS).
Krishnamurthy Subramanian listed land, labour, law, and liquidity as the key areas of big reforms.
Speaking at a defence industry outreach seminar, PM Modi said India's self-reliance on defence capabilities will boost its standing of being a net security provider in the Indian Ocean and make it a defence supplier for many friendly countries, depending on strategic ties.
The Labour Party leader, whose stand on Kashmir has not gone down well with the Indian government, also tweeted a picture of the meeting.
>The farmers will go home but the country will not get the agricultural reform it badly needs -- if nothing else, then to prevent a bigger water crisis than already exists, argues T N Ninan.
Potato seed is selling for Rs 60-70 per kg in the open market this year as compared to Rs 18-22 earlier.
'It will take six months to one year to move to normalcy, depending on how the pandemic plays out in India.'
Every patriot should learn from our history and recognise that celebrating size will neither negate nor obscure the huge economic challenges that India faces, asserts Rathin Roy.
India must first improve working condition, then it can concentrate on Make in India concept.
Whether India can create labour-intensive factory jobs instead that it needs to put millions to work in the next few years looks very unlikely.
A decision in this regard was taken in the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
'Why has this turned out to be one of the greatest humanitarian crisis that has caught the Centre and the states in a bind with no answers to this unexpected tsunami?' asks Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).
At a time when finding out who is paying for labourers' train tickets is a task for Sherlock Holmes, Hemant Soren's Jharkhand government has flown in stranded workers from Ladakh, and is probably the only state that has tried to give 'migrant workers' a modicum of respect, observes Debashish Chatterjee.
India is much better placed today to deal with future waves of the pandemic relative to the first wave, RBI deputy governor Michael Patra said.
'Loss of these urban salaried jobs is, therefore, likely to have a particularly debilitating impact on the economy, besides causing immediate hardship to middle-class households,' points out Mahesh Vyas.
'But the world would be much poorer without economics' contribution to understanding how societies function and without economists' suggestions as to how politicians might improve them. 'And economists themselves could do wonders by simply incorporating the country-specific factors in their econometric models rather than just applying them in toto," say Soumya Kanti Ghosh and Samir K Jha.
If we have not been world beaters in cricket for the longest time, here is the reason: We look down on our bowlers and deify batsmen, argues Aakar Patel.
Alleging misconduct by its permanent workers, labour unions and contract staff, the plant management informed all stakeholders, through a notice, that starting Monday "normal operations" at the plant are being suspended.
A government panel examined the records of employees surveyed by Labour Bureau's quarterly enterprises surveys and mapped it with the EPFO's subscribers and found "unexplained variations" between the two.
Indian companies are expected to dole out an average increment of 9.1 per cent in 2022, higher than the pre-COVID-19 increment in 2019, as companies are focusing on retention of talent through rewards. According to the 2022 Workforce and Increments Trends Survey by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP, the average India 2022 increment is expected to go up to 9.1 per cent from eight per cent in 2021. Moreover, the 2022 projected increment is higher than the pre-COVID-19 increment in 2019 by 50 basis points (bps).
Vinay Umarji
Modi had clearly not come to terms with the limits to a prime minister's powers, any prime minister's powers however strong numbers he may have in Parliament, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hard sold his government's reforms spanning from manufacturing to taxation to labour, saying they have changed the world perception about the country from 'why India' to 'why not India' and went on to quote record foreign investment during the pandemic as a testimony to that. Speaking at industry association Assocham's Foundation Week event, Modi also said agriculture reforms brought by his government six months back have started benefiting farmers. The reforms in the last six years have influenced in changing the sentiment of the industry from 'why India' to 'why not India' in investing.
They said that massive public investment in infrastructure, social sectors and agriculture would generate employment and the Union Budget should give it a priority and allocate necessary funds for this.
The appeal by the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) came after a delegation led by its president Farooq Abdullah met Jammu and Kashmiri Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at the Raj Bhavan in Srinagar.
Jobs in HR, administration and recruitment have seen a substantial rise as per Monster data with a 42% growth in job posting activity.
In his address after more than 75,000 people were given appointment letters for various government jobs in the first tranche, Modi acknowledged the challenges facing the economy the world over with many countries hit by a record inflation and unemployment and said India is making every effort to come out of the situation unscathed.
In May, Satpal Singh, who runs a dairy business with three buffaloes in Jewar, near Noida, was worried about the steep spike in input costs. Singh said dry fodder rates, which cost Rs 1,500-2000 per tractor trolley last year, were quoting at Rs 4,500-5,000. The price of other cattle feed ingredients (that include mustard meal and similar mixes) had also gone up from Rs 2,000 per quintal to Rs 3,100-3,200 per quintal.
'The consolidation of the world's fifth-largest economy in the hands of 15-20 corporate giants is a once-in-generation event, which we are focusing on.'
