Economy | Citizen Matters

How COVID-19 has transformed jobs and the skills they require

July 15, 2020 Vijaya Pushkarna

How do you sell a house when you can’t take the prospective buyer around? How do you use technology to carry out people-centric roles? What will a post-COVID world demand of employees?

Wanted: New thought and regulation for the informal sector in India in a post-COVID world

July 10, 2020 Sachitha Kondath

The pandemic has exposed the gravest challenges facing India’s informal economy. These findings from a research project underline the need for policy implementation and reforms.

What lies ahead for the six million working in urban retail stores?

July 2, 2020 Raghu Roy

Conversations with HR professionals paint a gloomy future in the retail sector, that employs 60 lakh people in city stores alone. What can young employees do to improve their chances?

Emotions run high as markets in Srinagar reopen after 85-day lockdown

June 29, 2020 Abid Bashir Wani

Srinagar markets are open and business is gradually picking up. But customers are still few, and many traders are yet to get over the loss they have suffered.

How to prepare for the new future of jobs in a post-COVID world

June 23, 2020 Ambi Parameswaran

Just as electricity changed factories, technology changed the office. COVID will change it further, with the future of most jobs looking very different. The better prepared you are, the more successful you’ll be.

Why COVID-19 presents the perfect opportunity to make the lives of our household helpers better

June 18, 2020 Sariya Ali

Drawing upon learnings from her research project involving domestic workers in Delhi, the writer says this is a great time to take the first important step towards formalising their employment.

How can one ensure fair rights for workers in the gig economy?

June 18, 2020 T R Gopalakrishnan

“On paper we are not a hire and fire economy but we seem to be heading there.” Key deliberations on this emerged at a recent webinar co-organised by Citizen Matters.

Despite MSME package, Jaipur’s buzzing bazaars lie silent, textile sector steeped in gloom

May 31, 2020 Kavita Kanan Chandra

Barely 30-40 per cent of the MSME units in industrial clusters in and around the pink city are functional, and working to less than half their capacity. Lack of any monetary relief is their main grievance.

No baaraat, hence no band or baaja: In Kolkata, ban on social gatherings cripples many livelihoods

May 29, 2020 Gurvinder Singh

Wedding photographers, musicians with small bands, local caterers and many others, who depend on events and social gatherings for their earnings, talk of the sufferings that COVID-19 has brought upon them.

Tourism and local industries at a standstill, will infrastructure revive Himachal’s urban economy?

May 25, 2020 Ashwani Sharma

Himachal Pradesh has seen nearly 80 per cent loss of livelihoods, both rural and urban. The government is now pinning hopes on opening up construction and other infrastructure projects.

No jobs, farming season over: How long before migrants returning to Patna set out again?

May 20, 2020 Amit Bhelari

Faced with miserable conditions at district quarantine centres and no prospect of jobs, the 1.5 lakh plus labourers who have returned to Bihar could well be left with just one option — go back to where they returned from.

Will Odisha’s new urban employment scheme put money in the hands of the poor?

May 9, 2020 Lalit Pattajoshi

The UWEI looks at execution of labour intensive projects in urban areas, with an allocation of Rs 100 crore to be spent on wages of workers.

Patna: Ground reality trumps relaxation on paper

April 27, 2020 Amit Bhelari

Whatever partial relaxation has been allowed has brought little relief to the poor of Patna, which is not surprising given the many inconsistencies in the guidelines.

Bhubaneswar: The economy is battling the virus too

April 24, 2020 Lalit Pattajoshi

With the Centre’s new guidelines to slowly kickstart the economy, Odisha, too, has announced partial lockdown relaxation. But the problems that formal and informal sectors here face now is representative of what all states will have to tackle post May 3rd.

COVID-19 underlines crisis in jute mills in Kolkata suburbs

April 21, 2020 Gurvinder Singh

With no jute bags available, farmers switch to plastic bags to pack and transport their harvest as Bengal’s jute mills remain shut because of the pandemic. Its labour force is left in limbo with unpaid wages and little prospect of getting back to work.