As India starts a nationwide inoculation drive with domestically manufactured vaccines, it continues to cope with the economic and social fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The impacts of the pandemic and lockdown have led to a decline in development gains, disproportionately affecting low-income and vulnerable households. The impacts have been severe for India, given that the economy had begun slowing even before the crisis struck.
The Indian government has already committed US$397 billion, accounting for 15 percent of GDP, in a fiscal stimulus as a relief and recovery package to make India
atma nirbhar (self-reliant). There have been some bright spots in the economic stimulus, with its support for rural job creation and support for afforestation (US$792 million), as well as medium-term policies based on production linked incentives for building domestic manufacturing capacity, such as battery storage (US$2.6 billion). At the same time, the economic package also focuses on spendin
The maker of Rin, Dove and other household staples also expects demand to revive as Indians are vaccinated. Mehta said the government should partner private companies on the vaccination drive to leverage their reach and speed to market.
| Calcutta | Published 25.01.21, 01:03 AM
The Bengal government has received more than 10 lakh requests for job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act over the past seven weeks through the camps set up under the Duare Sarkar programme.
The numbers suggest that the lockdown-induced loss of livelihood is still affecting people in rural areas.
“A total of 2.21 crore people have visited 21,057 camps set up under the Duare Sarkar programme between December 1 and January 18. Of them, 10,10,224 people sought job cards under the MGNREGA. The figure is staggering as we never received so many applications seeking job cards under the scheme,” a senior government official told The Telegraph.
According to the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), 44 people died in Delhi between 1993 and 2019 while cleaning septic tanks and sewers
Budget 2021: MNREGA is vital but needs more govt attention
Budget 2021: The government was forced to not just continue with MNREGA, but also increase the budgetary allocation under it in the pandemic year. The scheme is now counting on the upcoming budget for more money. January 20, 2021 / 12:37 PM IST
In a year of unprecedented challenges due to Covid19 and subsequent loss of livelihood for the rural poor, the UPA-era rural job guarantee scheme has been a life-saver. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREGA) scheme has seen a record number of households as well as individuals demanding work in 2020-21. Until the morning of January 19, nearly 76.7 million households and more than 118 million people had demanded work under the scheme. This means nearly 20 million more households and 27 million more people demanding work under the scheme compared to the full year 2019-20.