India First

Do We Need Aarogya Setu? As COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe over the last few months, governments across the world have had to absorb a flood of information from a 360° window, probably 24 hours a day, and have taken series of decisions to protect their nations’ populations from the dreaded infection. Among the many progressively enforced measures have been restrictions on travel, socialising, commuting, maintaining personal hygiene, and finally lockdowns in many countries. India was the first country to impose a nationwide lockdown, which has been extended twice, with some relaxation in rules being introduced in the second and third lockdowns. Even before the pandemic hit India, Government of India (GoI) has been severely attacked across the political spectrum and beyond for having let the economy go into a tailspin. Irrespective of whether the attacks were exaggerated or accurate, everyone will agree that the lockdown has dealt a body blow to the economy, even as one ne...

Supporting India’s Unorganised Workforce During the Lockdown As days, weeks and months have passed since India’s first novel coronavirus (nCoV) case identified on 30-Jan , the country has progressively moved from safety advisories issued by Union and state governments to restricting travel internationally and domestically, to   voluntary nationwide curfew suggested by the Prime Minister, to declaring a weeks-long lockdown of the country. While doctors, United Nations and World Health Organisation supported the lockdown, bringing the country (barring essential services) to a halt has extracted its economic price from all layers of society, even as the lockdown has succeeded in slowing down the spread of the virus across the length and breadth of the country. High level dynamics of India’s unorganised workforce India has an estimated workforce of about 50 crores (500 million), of which over 70% (Table 1.1) (35 crores/350 million) are believed to work in the unorg...