economic policy & Labour

Inflation and Impact on Growth Recovery

THE possibilities of persistent inflation seem to be looming large and a resultant contraction in demand primarily because of a cost-of-living squeeze is going to impact the growth rate, the forecast of which undergoes a downward revision in recent rounds by most rating agencies. The Russia-Ukraine war and the consequent rise in fuel and food prices are not going to cool down soon. Prices of food, metals, fertilizers and edible oil are on the rise at a global level driven by supply bottlenecks created by the war.

Food Inflation and the Working People

THE Consumer Price Index (General) measuring retail headline inflation shows a year on year growth of 7.8 per cent in the month of April 2022, which is the highest in the past eight years. Actually, the CPI (General) was higher than 6 per cent in the month of May and June last year and then the prices seem to moderate till September 2021. Since then, there has been a sharp rise in prices reaching close to 8 per cent in April this year.

Marx: ‘Working Day’ and Class Struggle

THE struggle to define the working day as Marx described in Capital I was a protracted and concealed civil war between the capitalists and the working class spanning for more than half a century. For capital, the consumption of labour from the labour-power shouldn’t face any limit of time. The longer the constant capital or machines put to work, the greater will be the possibility of extracting surplus value from the workers.

Rising Exports with Declining Domestic Value Added

INDIA’S trade deficit has increased in the recent months with double digit growths in both exports and imports. The trade deficit was a result of imports growing at a faster pace than that of exports. The year on year growth of exports and imports in March 2022 was roughly 20 per cent and 24 per cent respectively leading to a widening trade deficit. This is primarily because of rise in the import bills due to increase in international prices of petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) and also of non-oil and non-gold and silver imports such as commodities and metals.

Gig Work: Techno-normative Control and Rising Precarity

GIG work has emerged as a significant mode of employment within the platform economy. Technology platforms allow a new work form where people can join the labour market by simply accessing an application that happens to be the site where consumers, employers and workers virtually meet. Platform-based work encompasses different modes of crowd work where individual service providers can meet their clients through the internet and sell services as required.

Rising Exploitation amidst ‘Humanitarian Crises’

ONCE again it is clear by emerging trends in employment, that wages and returns to labour and the conditions of employment are determined in capitalism not by any moral judgment of nutritional necessity or by any universal norm derived from a metaphysical notion of ‘humanity’, but purely conditioned by the relative bargaining power of contesting classes.The current pandemic has an extensive impact on human life at large with the virus mutating continuously and infecting human bodies escaping the shields of various preventive measures including vaccines.

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