Brace for return migration

Rural economy won't be able to support excess workers forever

Conflicting signals have emerged about the state of the rural economy. The precise level of both prosperity and livelihoods at this stage of the pandemic in rural India is crucial in order to gain an understanding of the path of the recovery in the overall economy. On the one hand, corporate guidance and statements in recent days have suggested that there is strong rural demand, driven in part by good monsoons. Fast-moving consumer goods companies in particular have highlighted that rural demand held up better during the lockdown period than urban demand did — where, of course, the lockdowns themselves