Best of BS Opinion: Unemployment rate at 24.3%, confusion in air, and more

Business Standard opinion pieces for the day talk about various aspects of the Covid crisis

Even as the number of Covid-19 cases increased by 6,977 on Monday, India partially opened up air travel. While activity has started in a number of other sectors, India will now need to carefully manage the balance between lives and livelihood. Business Standard opinion pieces for the day talk about various aspects of the Covid-19 crisis.

More work has to be done by the Union government and particularly the civil aviation ministry to ensure that air travel in the time of the pandemic is properly regulated, notes our lead editorial Read here

The recent skirmishes between China and India in Ladakh and Sikkim underline the need to understand Beijing’s motives and respond to them appropriately so that mistakes — most notably in responding poorly to signals in the run-up to the 1962 border war — are not repeated, argues our second editorial Read here

There is a growing feeling that with the government fiscally constrained, the banks will have to bear some of the costs needed to nurse the economy back to health, writes Akash Prakash  Read here

While the unemployment rate has been reasonably stable around 24 per cent during the lockdown, the labour participation rate trend seems to tell a story of some interesting changes in the labour markets, notes Mahesh Vyas Read here

Quote

“It has been one week since the (fourth phase) lockdown began. After one week, I can say that the situation is still under control and there is no need to panic.”

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal