India First

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...

The Potential of combining Aadhaar and Periodic Labour Survey Since about 45 years, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation under the Government of India has been conducting quinquennial Employment and Unemployment Surveys . These surveys are the primary data input to the government on labour force-related attributes, which in turn can guide the government in its employment-related decision-making. India is the largest democracy and the second most populated country in the world. It also has the largest population of young citizens. The government of any democracy is duty-bound to enable realisation of the aspirations of its population. And the pressure on the government is considerable when a huge percentage of the population is under 25 years of age. By having access to sample-based employment and unemployment data no more frequently than once every five years, a government in inherently heavily disadvantaged in assuming its role as an effective generator of ...

Thoughts on Widespread Unemployment and what the Indian Government Could Do About it - Views Not Based on Statistical Analysis! During a recent conversation, a friend mentioned that his car had the automated parking feature. I wasn’t aware that any aspect of driverless technology had been commercialised, which is what led me to have the discussion with both of them. We all must’ve read about Uber testing driverless taxis in Singapore and elsewhere a few months ago. We’ve seen how technology is making inroads in aspects of our lives that we wouldn’t have imagined a few decades ago. I mentioned to both that this could mean widespread shrinking in entire professions, or their elimination. I related it to a book my father had read in the nineties, in which the futurist (I can’t recall if it was Alvin Toffler or someone else) predicted that with increasing advancement in technology, in this century employment will exist for only 20% of the world’s population, while the remaining 80% w...