Economy

65-year-old Sain Ullah Khan has been driving a taxi in Mumbai for the last 35 years, but his life turned upside down during the COVID pandemic, in 2020. Two years ago, the lockdown took away his income and savings and now he is troubled by high Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) prices. "I used to take Sundays off before the lockdown and work only till noon on Fridays but that has not been possible for the past two years. If I take an off now, we'll be left hungry. Eid is the only time I can afford a holiday," says Khan. Having…

The first thing people see after stepping out of the railway station after a long day at work is a row of street vendors. To quench your thirst with nimbu paani or buttermilk, with hot vada pavs for those who want to grab a quick bite, and vegetables neatly sorted into vaatas or portions for those who need enough for one family’s meal and cannot afford a whole kilo. We stand the whole day or roam around different localities to make a living. A regular day is not smooth sailing, it is fraught with several problems. Society sees our hard…

Amidst a cacophony of chants of “ond maaru nalvattu" (one measure Rs 40), every morning the city's Krishna Rajendra Market wears a vibrant cloak of reds, orange and yellow. The removal of all COVID restrictions has made the flower market even more colourful and cacophonous, as this year's festival season gets underway. Amidst negotiating a kucchu (bunch) of fully bloomed chrysanthemums from Rs 140 down to Rs 100, Naveen Kumar, a flower seller in KR Market for 17 years, is seeing an uptick in his sales during the weeks leading up to Varamahalaxmi, Dussehra, Ganesh Chaturti and Ugadi. “I earn…

The pandemic wrecked the livelihoods of many people in Chennai. The state government set up the Dr C Rangarajan Committee to provide medium-term policy suggestions to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19. One of the suggestions of the committee was the creation of a daily wage programme for the urban poor. Taking this into consideration, the Tamil Nadu government rolled out an Urban Employment Scheme (TNUES) in Chennai and other municipal corporations. The scheme mirrors the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and is designed to provide guaranteed employment for 100 days in a year. "The scheme has…

Since the inception of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) for digital payments, users no longer need to download multiple payment applications. Using one payment gateway network, money can be easily transferred to different accounts through varied gateways, keeping it smooth and hassle free. Taking this concept further, the union government recently introduced the Open Network for Digital Commerce, or ONDC, to encourage digital payments for purchase of goods and services while making the process convenient, easy and smooth for both buyers and sellers. It is argued that the ONDC will be the UPI of e-commerce and shift the paradigm of…

Ratan Kumar, a migrant worker from Jamalpur in Bihar’s Khagaria district, lives in a small, dingy room along with five other workers, also from Bihar. The room, which is poorly ventilated and has no other amenities, is part of the construction site in the Sarjapur area where he works. As buildings under construction do not have electricity, Ratan and his friends manage with candlelight at night and feel vulnerable to rodents and snakes, given all the debris and other waste lying all over the site. "I cannot afford a rented room as I have to support a wife and four…

There is certainly no lack of ambition among the intellectuals inhabiting the corridors of the union government’s premier developmental think tank Niti Aayog. Having set a goal of becoming a $5-trillion economy by 2026 and $40-trillion economy by 2047, Niti Aayog, in collaboration with Asian Development Bank, has come up with a voluminous report on how the country can harness the economic potential of its Tier 2 and 3 cities by developing them as “engines of growth”. This article summarises some of the report’s key findings and recommendations. To begin with, the study states that India’s urban population is estimated…

Former American President Harry Truman apparently once said that he wished he could find an economist with only one hand. When asked why, he replied, “Whenever I ask an economist a question, his reply always is “on the one hand…”, followed by “on the other hand…”. Truman had a valid grouse. For instance, do you know what “inflation”, a term much bandied about by economists, media and the RBI in recent weeks, means. Inflation basically means the rate at which prices of goods that you buy on a regular basis, especially food items, are rising. For example, the price you…

Hailing from Naini in Allahabad district, UP, Ajay, 19, runs a roadside gol gappa stall in Sarjapur on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Street vendors are few in this area so the few vendors like Ajay selling street foods like samosas, idlis, vadas, rolls, momos and gol gappas are sought after by students from nearby.  Ajay, who does not face much competition on his street, does brisk business on weekends, especially Sundays, starting at 3 pm and closing shop around 8 pm in the evening. He shares a small home near Billapura with five others, who are also street vendors. A…

Ashok*, a first generation graduate hailing from Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu, secured a job at a leading IT firm over a decade ago in Chennai. With the state capital being a dream destination for many from rural Tamil Nadu, he landed in Chennai with plenty of hopes and dreams.  As years passed, he gained experience but also realised that the pay scale for his role was much lower than what a professional with the same level of experience would get in Bengaluru and other metro cities. With nearly 12.5 years of experience, Ashok now works in a start-up IT…