Economy

Odisha is primarily a rural economy, with 83% of the state’s population living in rural areas as per the 2011 census, and dependent for their livelihood primarily on agriculture and allied activities. Not surprisingly, the state's first steps have been to open up activities in agriculture, rural housing and MGNREGA work. Around 20% of Bhubaneswar’s daily wage labourers working in both the formal and informal sectors have returned to their villages while those left behind remain dependent for their survival on the cooked food and rations, besides groceries and vegetables being provided by the city authorities. Daily wage labourers who…

Lakhs of street vendors in Bengaluru have been badly impacted due to the lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19. We are on the 30th day of lockdown, and 90% of the city's street vendors have not been able to carry out their livelihood as they would during normal circumstances.  There are several news reports of migrant workers being stranded without wages and food. However, street vendors are also facing a similar situation. Neither can they carry out their sole means of earning, which is street vending, nor do not have an employer from whom they can demand wages. “If…

Just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown from March 24, states like Punjab and Telangana were looking forward to a bumper harvest and smiles on the faces of their farmers. And on the faces of the owners and workers in West Bengal’s labour intensive jute mills. But the lockdown dashed everyone’s hopes. Farmers are unsure of how and who will procure their products. Especially given the acute lack of jute bags, given the complete shut down of West Bengal’s jute industry, putting lakhs of its workers out of jobs and income. It is during harvest time…

April 15th is the day that marks the beginning of the annual 60-day trawling ban in Tamil Nadu. A ban that restricts fishermen with mechanised boats from venturing into the sea. A ban that sees fewer boats getting into the sea along the coastline of Chennai. Not this year! The Bay of Bengal was abuzz with activity on the 15th when scores of fishermen (mechanised boats are still banned) sailed into the sea after 21 days of the first phase of the nation-wide lockdown. While the lockdown was extended for another 18 days, the central government’s move to exempt fishing…

The coronavirus pandemic that has swept the globe is perhaps going to be recorded in history as the most impactful and consequential event of this century. It has stretched the capacities of governance, public health infrastructure and social administration of affected nations to their limits. At the same time, the lockdown enforced to prevent the spread has brought economies to the ground and jeopardised the job prospects of many. With unemployment soaring during these tough times, recent graduates waiting in the wings and looking for their first job feel marooned. According to the All India Survey of Higher Education by…

Apprehension grips the agricultural heartland of Punjab as the new Rabi crop waits to be harvested. Labour shortage in the farms due to the coronavirus lockdown is, of course, a major worry. Farmers are clueless on what is in store for them, once harvest begins on April 15th, the date fixed by the state government. “I have not faced conditions of this nature in my entire life, nothing is sure anymore,” said Jagseer Sandhwan, a farmer owning 15 acres of land in Sandhwan village of Faridkot district. The government has set a procurement price of Rs 1925 per quintal for…

Baisakhi, the harvest festival, falls on April 13th. Fields across the country have turned a glossy gold with the Rabi crop—largely wheat, mustard, chana and barley, to be harvested in Punjab, Haryana and UP where it will begin during April 15-20. Only this time, machines, not men, the traditional backbone of Indian agriculture, will handle the harvest. As their vegetables lie unpicked and abandoned, farmers are worried how they will harvest the wheat, who will fill the jute bags with grains and load them on to the tractor trolleys, and who will unload them at the mandis, and above all, who will…

We have lived through a lockdown for over 15 days now. While a lot of us are concerned about not being able to order food online, R Nambiyar* (57) is worried about the fast emptying containers on his shelf of supplies. Another week, and the shelf is likely to be wiped clean and he has no money even to buy rice and dal. Nambiyar is one of the economic victims of COVID-19, as the pandemic has left him jobless. Uncertainty over food and income in the city led him to quit and go back to his hometown Edamelaiyur, a village…

The coronavirus outbreak has hit Himachal Pradesh with a triple whammy. With the state having closed its borders before the national lockdown, the tourism industry, on which lakhs of livelihoods depend, was completely shut down. While initially just three positive cases were reported, with one death, and a manageable number of foreign returnees requiring surveillance and tracing, the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has caused a sudden increase in the number of positive cases even as health authorities scramble to trace primary and secondary contacts of those who had visited Delhi. The third whammy is the potential catastrophic disruption of…

As the coronavirus outbreak shows no signs of abating any time soon, the economy of every nation, first world and third world, is in virtual free fall. For India too, COVID-19 is not only a public health challenge, but also an economic challenge that needs to be tackled on a war footing by the Central and state governments. Restricted cargo movement, weak supply chains, lack of liquidity in the markets, heavy cross-border movement by migrant workers and many other factors have added to the pressure on the economy. With relief packages aimed at the middle class and the poor being…