View Articles

BHOPAL: Urgent and coordinated actions are needed by central and state governments to enable safe and caring transportation of millions of migrant workers and their families still stranded away from home. Nearly 40 academics, researchers and social activists convened a Webinar to understand the reasons behind continued distress being faced by migrant workers around the country. It became clear in this deliberation that no government authority, at the centre or in states, has any comprehensive understanding of scale and type of migrant workers, especially those who are in vulnerable, insecure and informal employment and occupations.

The Reserve Bank of India came out in the open when it pointed at the fractured status of economy. Shaktikanta Das, the governor, announced that demand has collapsed, growth in 2020-21 is sliding down to a negative territory. He also added that GDP could contract further. In the face of the soaring disaster, the ‘celebrated package’ of twenty lakh crore contains a fiscal stimulus of Rs 1,86,650 crore amounting to barely 0.91 per cent of GDP.

The completion of four years of the LDF government in Kerala on May 25 was invested with a special significance. It came in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic, the tackling of which, by the state government, has earned it widespread appreciation in the country and abroad. The effective manner in which Kerala has met the coronavirus threat is not an isolated episode. Behind it lies a history and a social and political background.

The Narendra Modi Government completes its first year of second term on May 30 and at the same time, the Prime Minister is saddled with a decision on to extend or not to extend the present lockdown of the nation which began on March 25 this year The lockdown 4 expires its term on May 31. The first lockdown decision was unilateral as Prime Minister announced his decision only four hours before the beginning of the lockdown thereby plunging the nation in an unprecedented crisis as all the industrial and construction activities stopped leading to extreme plight of the million of migrant labour throughout India.

India is all set to change its COVID-19 response strategy. Lockdown phase-5 will be applicable only to the places where social distancing cannot be maintained, such as schools, colleges, cinema halls, religious places or events, and very busy market places. All the modes of public transports may be allowed with certain conditions. All other economic activities will be allowed except in the COVID-19 hotspots, where containment measures will be more stringent, in view of the expressed opinions of experts who expect COVID-19 most likely to peak up around beginning of July 2020 when cases of infections may rise to over 600,000 with around 18000 deaths.

As economists we frequently have to encounter this question, “How long will it take for the economy to crawl back to normalcy?” As India nears the end of Lockdown 4.0, the popular mandate is not another round of lockdown. The decision to enforce a nation-wide lockdown must be viewed against the backdrop of the abysmal state of the country’s health infrastructure. According to the latest data available, India has 0.9 hospital beds and 0.7 doctors for every 1000 people, against the WHO recommendations of 1.9 hospital beds and 1 doctor per 1000 population. Moreover, India does not have adequate testing kits and administering the test is costly, with private laboratories charging up to Rs 4500 per test. Notwithstanding these limitations, the lockdown measures are badly affecting the livelihood of India’s 120 million migrant and informal workers, and therefore the rationale of opening up the economy.

Simmering discontent which has been brewing inside the Tory rank on the issue of sacking Boris Johnson’s key aide Dominic Cummings for violating the rules of lockdown has acquired the dimension of a tornado.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An unsavoury controversy has erupted between the Union Railway Ministry and the Kerala Government over the running of special trains.

People, out of their despair and hope have begun to ask “will socialism come back?". Many of them do it out of sincerity and eagerness. Certain others may not be so enthusiastic. Coming back of socialism cannot be ruled out. With the same emphasis it needs to be stated that it cannot happen in a dramatic way. Re-emergence of socialism in the new world order should have to be a historical process in which various factors such as economic, political, ideological, social and environmental questions are to be addressed. It is not at all a simple task as many may wish.

BHOPAL: It appears that because of forthcoming 24 Vidhan Sabha by-elections, coronavirus has taken a backseat in Madhya Pradesh. It may be recalled that because of resignation by 22 sitting Congress MLAs and due to the death of two legislators, by-election in 24 Assembly constituencies will take place soon. Though date for the by-elections has not been fixed, both the BJP and the Congress have launched preliminary preparations.