GST Rate Cut: Exuberance and Reality

THE recent rationalisation of GST rates seems to be a sigh of relief to consumers as well as to producers after facing a tyranny of cumbersome tax regime for eight long years since the introduction of GST in 2017.

Growth Estimates with Incongruent Trends

THE first quarter year-on-year estimates of GDP for the current FY 2025-26 turns out to be higher than the last year’s quarter one figures. But these are estimates and hence need to be dissected and seen in relation to other official estimates provided by the government. At the outset a 7.8 per cent growth rate in the first quarter of 2025-26 is higher than all the four quarterly year-on-year growth estimates of the previous year. This is important particularly when lot of uncertainty emerges in the global trade relations.

Hunger and Nutrition Deficit Amid High Growth

OVERWHELMING concern on growth metrics often tend to undermine issues related to wellbeing. Human wellbeing is not directly linked to growth and Prof Amartya Sen argued long back that rising per capita income is not sufficient to ensure augmenting human capabilities. Growth might increase the inputs necessary to sustain a level of welfare, but the outcomes of growth are not automatically welfare enhancing.

Protecting Autonomy against Imperialist Coercion

THE imagery of a flat world, embedded in equal partnership and interdependence between countries within the “global village,” based on gains through free trade and market forces while eschewing power from economic relations, ends in a dramatic climax. Those who could not see imperialism in the globalised world, or could only recognise “empire without geography” as capital combined with power in a stateless form, now seem perplexed by the crude justification and assertion of coercion by the US under President Trump.

Questioning Citizenship and Using It as a Tool of Control

MIGRATION is a flow of labour that reflects both a circuit of active labour and a circulation of reserve army of labour. Different regimes of accumulation and emerging growth poles define the nature of both circuit of capital and labour. ‘Footloose capital’ prefers ‘footloose labour’ as production structures are more dispersed and in a state of flux in the current regime of neoliberal globalisation. Such labour are workers on the move. They are like packets of labour power, undefined, docile and apparently without any political voice.

Reforms, Investment and Innovation Gaps

IN recent decades, there has been a growing association between global investment and innovation. Nearly 20 per cent of global multinational enterprises (MNEs) are technology firms, and the sectors attracting the largest shares of investment are closely linked to digital innovation.

ELI Scheme: Socialising Costs for Private Gains

THE cabinet has approved the Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) scheme with an outlay of Rs 99,446 crore, claiming to incentivise the creation of more than 3.5 crore jobs over a period of two years. Out of these, 1.92 crore beneficiaries will be first timers, entering the workforce. The benefits of the Scheme would be applicable to jobs created between August 1, 2025, and July 31, 2027.

Labour Codes: Betrayal of Labour Rights

THE Government of India proposed four Labour Codes claiming to reform the employer-worker relationship which was otherwise archaic and complex with too many rules and regulations. The much-needed labour reform as had been argued was meant to simplify the rules, address the changing needs of production flexibility and to take care of the ‘unprotected’ who are employed in the informal sector. These reforms are proposed in the context of the larger argument that competitiveness of Indian producers suffers due to labour market rigidity.

Wage Inequality and Rising Fragmentation

THE global labour market shows some recovery in real wages after protracted stagnation punctuated by episodes of decline in the aftermath of the pandemic according to a recent ILO report. Even though wages of workers show growth in the last two years, there are important concerns regarding various dimensions of wage inequality that do not show a decline.

Apple’s Relocation and Tim Cook’s Dilemma!

ACCORDING to Donald Trump it is time for a reverse relocation of manufacturing from the Global South to the US. He expressed his anguish to Apple CEO Tim Cook for the plan to extend operations in India. US now needs manufacturing because by relocating low value-added assembling, they would be able to provide jobs to average Americans who badly need them. Apple employs 3 lakh workers in China and 60,000 in India. If these facilities are relocated, US could straight away create about 3.5 lakhs new jobs!

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Peoples Democracy

economic policy & Labour