Opinion

Prof. Yogesh Pratap Singh & Madhubrata Rayasingh Importance of the MSME sector to Indian economy can be gauged by the fact that this sector accounts for 30 per cent of the GDP, 45 per cent of the employment and almost 50 per cent of the...

Ashutosh Das Sharma As the nation is locked down, and the keys are handed over to Mother Nature -- only to be taken back when she clears the impending doom -- we must realise that the situation will only get difficult as days pass. Maybe...

Prof. MC Behera A few weeks ago, I wrote elsewhere that the practice of segregation (quarantine) and social distancing have their origin in tribal traditions. Even the concept of Janata Curfew has its origin in Jan (tribal) tradition. The present strategy of ‘self-sufficiency’ as declared by Prime...

Dr S Saraswathi The Union Home Ministry has made Aarogya Setu -- Bridge to Health -- a contact tracing app,   mandatory for all “returnees”; meaning migrant labourers and those coming from abroad. The move is intended to facilitate better contact surveillance in Covid-19 cases which...

Melvin Durai Almost everyone in the world has prayed at one time or another. Some pray daily, while others pray whenever they need divine intervention. If a lion is running toward them, they will scream, "Dear God, please save me." Meanwhile, the lion is praying...

Susan Athey, Kendall Hoyt and Michael Kremer As countries around the world ponder strategies for developing a COVID-19 vaccine, it should be clear that the fastest and most effective approach is to work together. More than any other single intervention, a widely distributed, effective vaccine...

Pinaki Rath The time for the ‘crisis-begets-reform’ hypothesis is ripe. Has Odisha’s tourism industry finally got its chutzpah moment with the pandemic? A rethinking on international tourism through a “Look East” policy with focus on Religious Tourism is likely and its benefits will be well...

Jagdish Rattanani and RK Pattnaik In recent days, Union Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar held two meetings–- one with central trade unions and the other with employers’ representatives. The demands they put forward were proof again that they worked at cross-purposes even in...

Saeed Naqvi Why did some of us expect anything else from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the Nation the other evening? Like King John signing the Magna Carta with his Barons, Modi mollified the disgruntled business caste by giving a huge chunk to the...

Sandeep Mishra The Atmanirbhar Bharat Scheme (ABS), the second tranche of COVID-19 relief rolled out by the PM promises a stimulus of Rs 20 trillion to prop up the economy through channelization of credit to the affected sectors and also by way of reforms pertaining...