Best of BS Opinion: Labour market distress, fiscal consolidation and more

Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Wednesday

The effects of two devastating waves of the Covid-19 pandemic in India are receding, but the threat of new variants including Omicron continue to hang over India’s economic trajectory. The pandemic has significantly affected the job market and the labour force participation rate has declined by 3 percentage points to about 40 per cent. As our lead editorial notes, while the increase in welfarism and social protections can postpone the inevitable and somewhat protect living standards, the fact is that sustained increases in productivity, wages and job security for the vast mass of Indians is the only sure foundation upon which to build economic growth and secure livelihoods. Read here

In other views:

The Centre should maintain the current year’s fiscal consolidation pace to give states more time to adjust, writes AK Bhattacharya. Read here

Although much significance has been attached to the fact that Russian president Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi represented only the second time he has ventured out of his country since the Covid-19 pandemic broke in early 2020, the broad outcomes of the first-ever 2+ 2 dialogue ironically reflected the sub-text of the US-China superpower rivalry, notes our second editorial. Read here 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

 

“India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with an affluent elite.”

 

World Inequality Lab