A survey has reported a calamitous spike in joblessness across urban India. Employment conditions are only likely to worsen.
Such acute distress calls for heavy fiscal intervention Unemployment in the country has always been a slow-burn crisis, but the urban flare-up witnessed after the nationwide lockdown took effect on 25 March should worry policymakers.
India had no safe option other than to shut down, as only strict social isolation could have bought us the time needed to erect defences against a rapidly advancing threat to people’s lives.
Nearly three months after a novel coronavirus was identified in China, we still do not have a cure for covid-19, the disease it causes.