How Safe Is Your Job? Is Your Safe How
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OC THE RAPID TEST FIASCO The DMs: Covid’s Action Heroes MAY 11, 2020 `60 www.indiatoday.in REGISTERED NO. DL(ND)-11/6068/2018-20; U(C)-88/2018-20; LICENSED TO FARIDABAD/05/2020-22 POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT REGISTERED NO. COVID-19 IMPACT RNI NO. 28587/75 RNI NO. HOW SAFE IS YOUR JOB? EXPERTS SAY NO INDUSTRY IS IMMUNE, SO EXPECT PAY CUTS OR WORSE FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF obs are always the central issue in any economy. got cancelled and units are unable to repay loans due to the Elections are won and lost on unemployment COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown. Employers figures. After all, they are about human beings. cannot be expected to sustain their businesses if they are run- J People have to earn money from jobs for the ning at reduced capacity but having to pay the full workforce. goods or services they first produce and then consume The other big concern is that India’s labour participation which makes the wheels of the economy turn. The fear of rate has been slipping—from 47-48 per cent before demoneti- the coronavirus spreading has led to a shutdown of large sation to just 35.5 per cent following the six weeks of lock- parts of the economy. The Centre for Monitoring Indian down. It is still not clear that the lockdown will be lifted on Economy (CMIE) estimates 120 million people have been May 3—several state chief ministers want it to be extended. rendered jobless in one month of the lockdown. Of the total What is fuelling anxiety is the uncertainty over how long 406 million people employed in the country, the crisis will last. The head of an executive only 20 per cent, or 81.2 million people, are hiring firm put it pithily, “We don’t even know in the salaried class. While the pandemic whether we are in the beginning, middle or end won’t spare them either, the future will be of the pandemic.” grim for the remaining 324.8 million people who are either daily wagers, self-employed or ore than any other event in recent history, small farmers. This is not an Indian problem M the pandemic could create the largest In- alone. According to the ILO (International dian ‘precariat’. This portmanteau of ‘precari- Labour Organization), four out of five (81 per ous’ and ‘proletariat’ refers to a class of people cent) people in the global workforce of 3.3 suffering an existence without predictability billion are currently affected by full or partial or security. As a continuing condition, this has workplace closures. It considers this the most consequences for the material and psychologi- severe crisis since the end of World War II. cal welfare of the people and for social cohesion The 40-day nationwide lockdown in Our October 16, 2017 cover as a whole. This is a factor that should cause India, which has kept over a billion people serious worry to governments across the world. indoors and is the largest mass quarantine in Our cover story, written by Executive Edi- human history, seems to have kept infec- tor M.G. Arun and Deputy Editor Shwweta tions and deaths low as compared to the rest Punj, examines the Indian economy to ask the of the world, but extracted a terrible eco- big question—‘How Safe is Your Job?’ This is a nomic price. The most optimistic of forecasts question worrying millions across the coun- doesn’t see the Indian economy growing try as it is enveloped by uncertainty, specially at more than 1.5 per cent this year—some when we don’t have a social security net to estimates say growth may even be negative. cushion job losses. Naturally, this will have an enormous impact Having somewhat tamed the virus, the gov- on employment. Post corona, there will be ernment needs to send the following message three categories of jobs—those that will never to the district level where many crucial deci- come back; those that will be temporarily lost Our May 20, 2019 cover sions are being made: that their performance because of the slowdown in the economy and will be judged not only by how much they have will return on its revival; and new jobs that controlled the spread of the infection but by the will be created either in the same industries or in new ones. extent of the economic revival they have been able to generate Multiple factors will be at play, some positive, others nega- in their area. The government needs to be friends with industry tive. The trends of automation and artificial intelligence and remove all obstacles to an economic revival. They need to will be accelerated. There will be a shift in global supply announce an MGNREGA-type package for the urban poor. The chains, both inwards and outwards. We might be heading bureaucracy should abandon its instinctive suspicion of busi- toward a phenomenon which is being termed “gated glo- ness and instead act as a facilitator in reviving industry, so that balisation”. Consumer behaviour will not be easy to predict. people get back their jobs. Covid deaths may be getting meticu- At the moment, sectors such as aviation, travel, hospital- lously recorded, but there is no record of people dying of chronic ity, real estate, automobiles—which depend on people travel- hunger. This will be a silent killer with dire consequences. It is ling, staying in hotels, buying homes, cars and consumer something we have to keep in mind and make economic revival goods—have fallen like ninepins. Other sectors like exports a priority, otherwise we will pay a heavy price. that are linked to global supply chains are withering away because demand has dried up. Unemployment rates have shot up from 6.7 per cent in mid-March to 23 per cent in the first week of April. Of the 40-60 million jobs in the retail sector, 11 million are likely to take a hit. More than 15 million jobs could be lost in India’s export sector as half of all orders (Aroon Purie) MAY 11, 2020 INDIA TODAY 3 UPFRONT LEISURE DECODING THE Q&A WITH LARA JI0-FB DEAL PG 5 DUTTA PG 74 www.indiatoday.in CHAIRMAN AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aroon Purie VICE CHAIRPERSON: Kalli Purie GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Raj Chengappa GROUP CREATIVE EDITOR: Nilanjan Das; GROUP PHOTO EDITOR: Bandeep Singh INSIDE MANAGING EDITORS: Kai Jabir Friese, Rajesh Jha CONSULTING EDITOR: Ajit Kumar Jha (Research) EXECUTIVE EDITORS: S. Sahaya Ranjit, Sandeep Unnithan MUMBAI: M.G. Arun SENIOR DEPUTY EDITORS: Uday Mahurkar, Manisha Saroop HYDERABAD: Amarnath K. Menon 20 DEPUTY EDITOR: Shweta Punj SENIOR EDITORS: Kaushik Deka, Sasi Nair, Anilesh Mahajan MUMBAI: Suhani Singh; JAIPUR: Rohit Parihar SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Ashish Mukherjee MUMBAI: Kiran Dinkar Tare; PATNA: Amitabh Srivastava ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Shougat Dasgupta, Sonali Acharjee KOLKATA: Romita Sengupta; BHOPAL: Rahul Noronha; THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Jeemon Jacob ASSISTANT EDITOR: Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri PUNE: Aditi S. Pai PHOTO DEPARTMENT: Vikram Sharma (Deputy Photo Editor), by Illustration Yasir Iqbal (Deputy Chief Photographer), Rajwant Singh Rawat (Principal Photographer), Chandra Deep Kumar (Senior Photographer); MUMBAI: Mandar Suresh Deodhar (Chief Photographer), Danesh Adil Jassawala (Photographer); KOLKATA: Subir Halder (Principal Photographer); CHENNAI: N.G. Jaison (Senior Photographer) PHOTO RESEARCHERS: Prabhakar Tiwari (Chief Photo Researcher), DAS NILANJAN Saloni Vaid (Principal Photo Researcher), Shubhrojit Brahma (Senior Photo Researcher) CHIEF OF GRAPHICS: Tanmoy Chakraborty ART DEPARTMENT: Sanjay Piplani (Senior Art Director); Angshuman De (Art Director); Devajit Bora (Deputy Art Director); Vikas Verma (Associate Art Director); Bhoomesh Dutt Sharma (Senior Designer) Siddhant Jumde (Senior Illustrator) PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT: Harish Agarwal (Chief of Production), COVER STORY JOBS Naveen Gupta (Chief Coordinator) RAPID TEST KITS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: Manoj Sharma ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Anil Fernandes (Impact) FAILING THE IMPACT TEAM 30 Senior General Manager: Jitendra Lad (West) COVID-19 TEST General Manager: Mayur Rastogi (North), OUT OF The low accuracy of the Chinese- Upendra Singh (Bangalore), Kaushiky Gangulie (East) GROUP CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: Vivek Malhotra made rapid antibody testing kits has SALES AND OPERATIONS: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General Manager WORK hurt the containment strategy in many Deepak Bhatt, Senior General Manager (National Sales) Vipin Bagga, General Manager (Operations) states. Where did we go wrong? Rajeev Gandhi, Deputy General Manager (North) With the economy Syed Asif Saleem, Regional Sales Manager (West) S Paramasivam, Deputy Regional Sales Manager (South) in a pandemic seizure, DISTRICT MAGISTRATES Piyush Ranjan Das, Senior Sales Manager (East) no industry is really immune, though LEADING FROM some are more 34 THE FRONT vulnerable than others. Volume XLV Number 19; For the week India’s districts are ground zero May 5-11, 2020, published on every Friday Expect pay cuts in the war against COVID-19. 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