Informal jobs, child labour & press freedom rank — what global media says can hinder India’s growth

New Delhi: India’s general elections will decide who runs one of the world’s “hottest economies”, but investors banking on India to catch up with China will be disappointed if inequality remains high and private consumption weak, writes Megha Mandavia in The Wall Street Journal article, ‘India’s Boom Faces a Pitfall: Sharing the Wealth’.

The current elections, she says, have ignited conversations around wealth redistribution and inheritance taxes, drawing attention towards rising income inequality. If this inequality remains unaddressed, Indians, she says, will not see any significant income rise and rely on government assistance. “Higher fiscal deficits from supporting this population, higher interest rates to combat resulting inflation and weak consumption growth threaten to limit India’s growth going forward,” she adds.

An AlJazeera article, ‘Destruction of jobs’: India election turns spotlight on a dream gone sour’, sheds light on how India’s workforce is getting more informalised with the quality of employment suffering since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the article, journalist Saumya Roy says that many informal workers lack contracts and benefits, working under “precarious” conditions with “little security”, and it’s worse for women.

The article quotes Amit Basole, head of the Centre for Sustainable Employment at the Azim Premji University in Bengaluru, saying, “We see a shift since the 2000s, with a destruction of jobs at the lower end.” The trend, however, “seems to have accentuated sharply after 2019, when the pandemic hit”, says Roy.

“Journalism has become a dangerous occupation in India,” writes journalist Rana Ayyub in her opinion piece, ‘Journalism in India is under assault’, in the Washington Post.

From journalists either jailed or coerced into self-censorship in regions like Kashmir to foreign journalists who have had their credentials revoked, journalism is facing severe challenges in India, which ranks 161st in World Press Freedom Index, she writes.

She also interviews veteran journalist N. Ram, who criticises PM Modi’s avoidance of media questions and crackdown on independent journalism while advocating for free speech rights and legal defence to safeguard press freedom despite pressures.

‘How child labour in India makes the paving stones beneath our feet’ — a recent podcast by Romita Saluja for TheGuardian — discusses how promises of reforms notwithstanding, exploitation remains endemic in the sandstone industry, with children doing dangerous work for low pay.

According to the podcast, while there are strict regulations against child labour, it continues even today, with stones dumped outside homes for people, including children, to work on. Saluja says that the industry’s reliance on cheap labour and the absence of viable alternatives for the workers exacerbate the situation.

An Economist article, ‘Hedge funds make billions as India’s options market goes ballistic’’, discusses how a New York court case involving Jane Street has given insights into the typically secretive world of hedge funds and drawn attention to India’s “staggeringly large” options market.

India’s options market has grown significantly, with the country “accounting for 84% of all equity option contracts traded globally last year”, highlights the article, which analyses what’s behind the “options boom”. The article notes that while exchanges, trading firms, and the government gain from the boom, individual investors remain exposed to significant losses.

Israel attacks Rafah, floods in Brazil

Hamas Monday accepted an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal, but Israel said the deal did not meet its core demands and pushed ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. To know more, read this article by AP.

Floods in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul have killed 78 people in seven days as heavy rains continue. To know more, click here.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)