Arjun Kumar

Migrant workers had been assured multiple times that an economic lockdown will not be imposed and yet by mid-April reverse migration was in full swing.

The second wave of COVID-19 has now spread to the rural pockets of the country at a much faster rate than it did during the first wave of the outbreak.

The recent catastrophe in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, where a large part of the Nanda Devi Glacier fell into the Alaknanda stream near Joshimath, caused severe flooding. The rapid flow of water caused mountain slides that fell into deep ravines destroying all the houses and structures that came in their path.

To revive India’s growth story and to cash in on our rapidly closing demographic dividend window, Prof Santosh Mehrotra, a human development economist suggests four essential proposals that must be included in the Budget 2021. This includes an increased expenditure in infrastructure, health sector and an urban employment guarantee programme.

The coronavirus pandemic poses a challenge for implementing developmental responses in the context of district, one of the most important administrative units in India. There has been a push towards development at the grassroots level through AtmaNirbhar Bharat, Vocal for Local, One District One Product and National Infrastructure Pipeline.

Policies are seen as a political investment, and the executive and legislature have electoral pressures and considerations. Civil services and other government jobs have generated interests primarily for their job security, high salaries, and promotions.

India has seen large scale rural-urban migration of people trying to escape rural distress in the last few decades.

Economic development and creation of jobs have been India’s most critical challenges, and continue to be an overriding priority for the government. India’s rise in the World Bank’s global ranking on the ease of doing business is complemented with a successive downturn in its position on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) from 2014 to 2019.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), about 63 countries across the globe have prepared National Development Framework or National Employment Policy (NEP) to decide the roadmap for employment generation mainly after the global financial crisis, 2008.