Hours before Union Home Minister Amit Shah's virtual rally in Bihar on Sunday, Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders and workers staged protests, beating utensils and blowing conch shells against what their leader Tejashwi Yadav dubbed as the ruling party's celebration of the devastation caused by COVID-19 and the lockdown.
For Afghans in India, including medical tourists from the war-torn country as well as migrants and refugees staying here much longer, the safety of friends and families is the biggest concern - particularly for those linked to the now collapsed government or who have had work ties with the US.
'There was already a cash crunch and this (lockdown) has created more trouble.'
Addressing his first rally during the Bihar assembly elections, Gandhi insisted the Chinese army had indeed intruded into Indian territory. "They have seized 1,200 km of our land. But when the Chinese army intruded, why did our prime minister insult our soldiers by saying that nobody entered into the Indian side?" he said.
'There is lack of demand because people have no jobs, and no income.' 'Lakhs of people have lost their jobs and they have no income which has led to no demand in the market.'
'Modi has not lacked courage in the political sphere. It is time he showed it in the economic sphere as well.' 'To do this, he needs to shed the simple-minded nostrums about economic growth and swadeshi that he learnt in the Sangh Parivar,' suggests Virendra Kapoor.
In a move that could have a bearing on Indians, Britain has decided to significantly reduce work permit quotas of non-EU low-skilled migrants coming in to fill labour shortages in agriculture
Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said the stimulus package has left several sections like the poor, migrants, farmers, labourers, workers, small shopkeepers and middle class high and dry.
Will a time come when people will look beyond what they see as Modi'S strengths and begin to wonder why they have got poorer or sicker under his rule, asks Vir Sanghvi.
This will help employers keep a track of the diseases workers could suffer from while doing their jobs.
We used to hear of the Modi-Shah pair as the hyphenated top of the BJP leadership. Lately, the hyphen has disappeared and it is only Modi at the top. Yogi Adityanath gets honourable mentions, but he is still a good distance away from being anointed a worthy successor, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
FIFA will be warned by labour organisations that it faces an international campaign to move the 2022 World Cup from Qatar unless it ensures the host nation respects workers' rights.
Telecom operators say the reason for the low increase in ARPU in the two metros could be linked to the massive reverse migration of labour.
Marriage is the most common purpose of migration, with 49 per cent migrating for marriage, followed by moving with households (15 per cent) and work/employment (10 per cent), discovers Devanik Saha.
'We are trying to trace them.' 'We feel their phone batteries must have died because they are travelling by road.'
'No one should make coronavirus a Hindu-Muslim issue.'
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.
At the Ghazipur border, they huddled close together, only some with masks -- aware of the coronavirus threat that had led to an unprecedented 21-day lockdown of the country and taken away their jobs, but helpless to do anything about combating the infection.
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.
Payments banks are niche banks set up by the Reserve Bank of India to further the agenda of financial inclusion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Abuu Dhabi on Sunday on a two-day visit to the strategically important United Arab Emirates during which he will hold talks with the country's top leadership to enhance cooperation in key areas of trade and security and address the Indian diaspora.
'It has been a phenomenal effort at all levels of the government.' 'People were working 15-16 hour shifts in the central government, in the state governments, in the districts....'
According to sources, all private offices will work from home and only government offices and essential services will be open.
"Don't stop people from coming to big cities to improve their lives where labour market exist. Let this process go. But don't leave places that are left behind. Provide essential services like infrastructure, public services everywhere," World Bank economist Somik Lall said.
There have been several instances of traders dumping fruits and vegetables outside mandis. Or of farmers dumping produce outside their villages or feeding them to their animals.
According to the latest report from Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN), a voluntary effort started in March 2020 to mobilise relief for stranded migrant workers, almost 92 per cent workers, whom the group contacted between April 21 and May 31, had not received any money from their employer. This was after restrictions were imposed and work had stopped. The survey, which was conducted among 1,396 worker groups, adding up to 8,023 people that included 4,836 women and children, showed that 76 per cent of the workers had less than Rs 200 left with them.
'When the lockdown grounded a billion people, nothing had been planned well: Testing, masks, face shields, protective gear, medical equipment, contact tracing ... nothing.' 'Before COVID, if you didn't know that the state had neither the money, nor the intent, nor the capacity to govern wisely and humanely, you were simply blind.' 'After COVID, if we continue to look to the State, look forward to a financial package or ask "What is the government doing" when faced with a calamity, the joke is on us, says Debashis Basu.
Indian economy needs 12 million new jobs every year to absorb a growing workforce and urban migrants
'Fear of the Other stalks our lives as it did in ancient times and the mobs are just as easy to incite as it was then,' says Arundhuti Dasgupta.
This will be the fifth meeting of the prime minister with the chief ministers since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Since he lives locally, Harish Patel is one of the luckier migrant workers in Surat - in that his employer was able to squeeze in a single shift for him at the weaving unit in Kamrej in Gujarat - unlike others who went home for Holi and other festivals just as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic was waxing and ended up stranded in local lockdowns.
The TMC, which is yet to fully recover from the 2019 Lok Sabha poll setback, when the BJP's tally soared from two to 18, is apprehensive that the AIMIM may act as "spoiler" in several assembly segments.
The clarification was issued through an advertisement in local dailies after facing political backlash, including from parties perceived close to the government.
In this COVID-19 phase, the BJP leveraged its pre-eminence again to tip the power scales in its favour and relegate its allies in the National Democratic Alliance to a lesser position. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Drones are being used for carrying out a host of tasks like surveillance to ensure that people are maintaining social distancing, spreading awareness about COVID-19 in densely populated areas, spraying disinfectants and checking people's temperature
Nearly 25 million jobs could be lost worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic, but an internationally coordinated policy response can help lower the impact on global unemployment, according to a UN agency. In its preliminary assessment report titled 'COVID-19 and world of work: Impacts and responses', the International Labour Organization (ILO) calls for urgent, large-scale and coordinated measures across three pillars -- protecting workers in the workplace, stimulating the economy and employment, and supporting jobs and incomes.
These parties also asked the Centre to present a revised comprehensive economic package that will be a 'true stimulus' and sought reversal of all unilateral policy decisions, especially pertaining to labour laws, as they put forth a 11-point demand charter before the government during a virtual meeting, called by the Congress to discuss the situation arising out of the pandemic as well as the lockdown.
Concern is growing among healthcare experts who believe that if people do not follow the lockdown or social distancing seriously, the situation can quickly go out of control.
Could the Centre and the prime minister have achieved more than what they did on curbing the endemic spread through more of the Modi outreach, given his credibility and unchallenged ability to communicate with the masses, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
