85 percent protection. some big news now for ab fez, the group is back with their 1st studio album in 40 years. ah. the swedish foursome sold more than 385000000 albums worldwide in the seventy's and eighty's and their latest offering called voyages likely to shift plenty more. their members are now all in their seventies, but they haven't changed their successful formula. ah, this is al jazeera and these are the top stories. 9 groups, including to grind, forces have formed an alliance against ethiopians government. they want to bring down the governments either by negotiations or by the use of force. the un security

council is going for a peaceful resolution to the intensifying conflicts and is demanding access for humanitarian aid to the to grey region. the members of the security council express deep concern about the expansion, an intensification of nearly 30 galoshes, inordinate european. they, for their call to put an end to host t, the thief, and to negotiate a lasting see fire. i'm for the creation of conditions for the start of an inclusive, it's your p n. mash anal dialogue. the un human rights council has condemned the military takeover in sudan. the council has agreed to appoint an expert who will monitor alleged rights violations report back on the findings next year. the council called for an end to the use of force that is so far killed at least 13 civilians. protests over iraq's parliamentary elections have turned violent. demonstrations.

call the october vote. a sham security forces are fired in the air and use tear gas to try and disperse the crowds. more than 100 people have been injured. a course in the u. s. sake of georgia has been hearing opening statements in the trial of 3 white men accused of murdering an unarmed black man. 2 years ago, a mild aubrey was shot dead while he was jogging after being chased by the group and pickup trucks nearly 2 years ago. he without speaking, nancy pelosi says she hopes to pass president joe biden's infrastructure bill on friday. but after months of wrangling, she expects bite in social welfare bill to only be approved by thanksgiving. the one trillion dollar bill already passed in the senate. it includes the biggest upgrade of roads, railways, bridges, and airports. the bill is expected to narrowly pass with a democratic majority of the headlines. i'll have another update for you on al jazeera right after context, india c, shortly. bye bye. ah, 25 years ago,

a middle east, a 2 part documentary series, march 25th anniversary of al jazeera telling the story of the channels and now it became recognized global brand. ah, the story of algebra. but unique path hello. 2 and welcome to context india. i'm famous, so that's coming to you for moon by context india, we take the time to deliver a full wall, considered analysis of the country, its politics and its people to 4 episodes we're taking a close look at what has perhaps been the biggest crisis. india has faced independent covered panoramic. this week we're looking at the virus impact on the indian economy. the pandemic said almost no country in the world. some weather the

so back to them the others. but the overall impact has been deep and will likely last a while in india, inequality and unemployment, or some of the highest level they have been in recent years. i'll be speaking with jensen, how a member of parliament from the boss, the agenda party representing the central government, and professor devonne, vice president of the indian society of labor economics. at the close of this week's episode will feature an excerpt from a piece of panoramic art music created through the cupboard month of this week. the artist featuring a rapper from south india. ah, i want to place before you 2 faces of the indian economy. on the left is what became defining images of the 1st wave of colbert india in 2020 labourers render jobless overnight, leaving cities and walking hundreds of miles back to the towns and villages.

casualties of a sudden stringent lockdown on the right, some of the richest people. as the world grappled with the panoramic india added 38 billionaires to it's 2021 which list 2 sets of images to very different realities. but one story that just mean equality in india, exacerbated by the panoramic during the been to make unique. what did you became absolutely obscene in this country? this is part of the gilbert in india, the super rich. i did enormous feature there. let me just give you a few data points. just man of this and remote money was making so much money every 2nd, that at an informer sector worker would have needed 3 years of work to make the amount of money that location money in one ticket. so it's, it's really obscene and i would say more of the number of 1000000000 as it federal

and shortly. and the impact on the weaker segment is also in government as a result this challenges. but as far as my analysis is, their majority of leaving when the billionaire is because of increased valuation in the stock market. but for the weaker section, it has been jenny and government who hits millions of schemes has tied to support the bottom step of the population. and we are looking into it. the gaping inequality isn't in the are not new, did the result of decades of economic problems. but the virus has aggravated each and every one of these condition. let's talk about some of the big ones, starting with employment. at the end of the 1st year of the panoramic 2020, because compiled by the international labor organization showed that india, the unemployment rate was at 7.11 percent highest. the country had seen in the last

decade when the 2nd be recovered, exploded in april 2021. jobs took another massive hit according to the center for monitoring and economy within the 1st half of the year. more than 95000000 people fell into unemployment. but it wasn't just the numbers of a significant. it was that kind of jobs being lost. let's take the case of april 20, 213400000 salary jobs a loss to be 2020. what. what, what day. they were mostly medium, a small, get into praise, the shutting down. and as they were shutting down, their salaried employees were losing jobs. now those people are not going to get them very used to be back. whereas if you are pushing a cart, it could be a carpenter, it could be a vegetable selling woman. it could be a person who's doing a gig in a, in the modern economy. all these people, when the unlocking happen though and back to work, got lower wages,

but they were back to work. not like the salary people who were hit pretty badly. so it's very difficult for salary people to get their jobs back. and that's a severe structural hit. now, the policies announced by the mo, the government to shore up the economy, appear sizable vis hookey art. is to be i may say caught the name is camara. e, he ah mon, neither bird potter the headline program up and it, but bought us a self reliant india. stimulus package consisted of 3 installments of government id, amounting to a total of $14.00 trillion trophies, approximately $193000000000.00. nearly 10 percent of indian 201920 g d p. in addition, they've been specific measures targeting the 4 and the wonderful programs enabling

access to caching as well as food green. while the monetary, some of the official announcements have been staggering, disbursement of actual money reached the hands of those who needed the most as raised questions. if you're looking at these notional numbers and they were also talking to, i think during the band to make it would have been important to me miss much more in eric gosh, transfers or delicately boosting up the health infrastructure. but then also other brought you know, one of the problems is that docs off investment in boosting the social infrastructure through the participation of private sector. it sounds good. but if you just announced a package image, you're giving huge amount of resources for the private sector. it would end up again lining the pockets of religion and creating some kind of infrastructure for

them to be. but, but goal will not manage. there are 3 important elevation, an ottoman liver potter. one large allocation was to the word segment in the bottom state of the population that it fun transferred to the fall. most people who love the jobs and those who need read actions i checked. the 2nd is, are we are one is being given and supported to the agriculture economy, medium small and micro enterprises and st. windows. and the part portion is about the large industries and big corporate exec i thought the, the on the never bought it is very, very segregated into these 3 the government programs. notwithstanding a state of india many and less than considerably as a result of colbert 19. ready this is not a phenomenon exclusive to india,

but the magnitude of the slide in this country was in a class of its own. ready years of progress that india had made in addressing mosse poverty has been robust. do studies that came out in the 1st half of 2021. bad that out. a report published by the, as in dreams university. and ben, gloomy showed that in the 1st year of the panoramic $230000000.00 indians were pushed below and earning special of $275.00 piece of d as $5.12 had to find them. ignore happened. it had estimated 50000000 indians would have, in fact emerged from under this limit. the 2nd report by washington d. c based pure research center. 2 figures were of particular note, fosters india shrinking middle class estimated to have contracted by 32000000 in 2020. a. bed with a number may have reached the pandemic had not happened. the 2nd figure was of

india's extremely poor. those living an income of less than $2.00 a day. this demographic is estimated to have increased 75000000 accounting for nearly 60 percent of the global increase of poverty. the 1st year of the pandemic, the pandemic slammed into an economy that was already on shaky ground. years before 2020. the crew of iris made a difficult situation much more so and how they get government addresses. this is something that will be watched around the world. after all, india is home to 17 percent of the world's population. if the 6th largest economy in the world. and how would fairs and have an impact on the global economy. i'll be speaking with jan. sit help member of parliament, the agenda party representing the central government and professional review, devonne noted economist and vice president of the indian society of labor economics . welcome to both of you and i thank you for your time. my 1st question,

mrs. has the beeping has always cost itself is good for business and good for economics. in your opinion, do you believe that the b j b has in fact been good for our economy? the b j. b has been wonderful, fine derzik on me and the business sector is booming despite the corporate ban. demik, the reforms that we undertook, items of g s t, the insolvency in bankruptcy court, the monetary policy committee, the social security programs that we implemented, as well as the massive build out of infrastructure, have all made a huge difference. and the net result of all of this has been that we've seen that the corporate sector has flourished. revenues have grown strongly, profits of growing strongly. and of course the stock market is at record highs right now. uh, we have the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world. so this boards extremely well for the future. and i conclude by saying that india is well on track to achieving as 5 trillion dollar g, b,

gothic professors of and you agree that the beach, if it has been good for our economy, then i agree with the question. that is, the jeep is been good. for the corporate sector, but only for the corporate sector and not for anybody else in the country. they have had the lowest from 2016 onwards, the noise a g p, a rate of 4 percent. the highest unemployment in or if i, the us, sued. now a, you know, and then be talk about a good, i mean there's no kind of development, you know, there's no concept of people where this is concerned. and there is no indicator on which india has not fallen in global ranking. you take nutrition and you take hair, education, gender, a water pollution but is freedom. and now at the global hunger index, we are even below ordinate bon and bangladesh, indigo pakistan. so deli, what is this kind of economic policy?

the just focus is on a very tiny percentage of people and forgets the citizens of the, of the country. so i think these are the fundamental issues really, which characterized by that a nation is growing of collapsing, whitman the system. uh, let me take that back to you. few research center this year said that india has added $75000000.00 people to it's extremely poor category and be account now for 60 percent of the global increase in poverty. would you say that this inequality is not necessarily entirely a problem of the pandemic? and it is the problem of badly managed economics. i think we have to wait for the official statistics on all of this before we come to any conclusions. the numbers that you're quoting come from on official sources that have yet to be validated with. and i just wanted, i said, what official numbers would you wait for? because we have to look at the official numbers, we have to see what the word bank,

the i m f and others. such are international agencies and our own statistical agencies are saying before we jump to any conclusions, i'll tell you why. because i, my elected member of parliament from the looks of and my job is to go to our remote villages for to a radius of our country. to out of my constituency that if you look at the benefits that we have delivered in every religion, every house in india, that it is bank accounts, whether it is water, but it's electricity, whether it is a rewards, whether it is the houses, you can see the difference in even on remote villages in the quality of life and in the quality of services that people are getting right now, you're running the world's largest food distribution program. if you ask yourself that we've been able to provide better higher quality services to the people who really needed to look who had been making even earlier, you'll find that we have been able to deliver these basic services gas and windows

electricity bank accounts far better than any other government in the past? taking the question, the professor at the box. do you believe that the government managed stimulus? well, during a moment of press, that is supposed to fall? i think we need to argue and discusses debate as economists and of, and we talk about data. i think this and this is something which is very men accepted and you know, talked about to while, but there's the academic world outside or even within the government is and it is just no date on your day. in particular, expedients is very different from the empirical experience, which we have the stock market is knowing indicator absolutely no indicator of growth or development or, or the rights of people or anything, you know, end up on amendable questions. how many my didn't know data, how many debts during gal that no data?

how many, no giant might it is after the bend me no data these out on to sponsors, but in the parliament, it is no effort to collect data, a lot of us, but that it's into to sions, or individuals or universities or organizations, civil society. we have to fit in the gap and please remember that the pandemic game in a state of vend economy was collapsing. it's very clear that they impact the negative impact of the pan to make is not so much of the band to make it says, but the policy response of the lack of up on to see, to spawns the compassionate and antiquity policy response. do what the pandemic has served, brought about the 1st point, the other professor do. andries was that no data has been brenda, utterly untrue. the fact is that of course, prior to it, all of the official statistics were being released. of course, everything has been delayed because of the course that me, one of the numbers that she ordered, which is the 2nd one i want to respond to,

is that the economy was not doing well prior to quote that is also not true. the high frequency indicators were showing a very good to companies are moving along quite well. it's scoring that interrupted that very smart jacoby, that displaying on. so that's point number 2 point. see the be rather said he would be ship the coffee that we are almost back to be covered levels. and hopefully once the vaccination, which of course is also proceeding very well, then we will be able to resume our growth. and in fact, i've written several articles on this topic saying that we are like you to see a repeat of the roaring, twenties of resource entry of going professor that on, i think that was sent back to you about judy schemes being implemented at the end of the stick indicators which we have to see some people's point of view and not on the business point of view of the court put a point of view to our people, getting enough food. are they getting enough employment? what are they? the ages have the wages fallen on not fall, and i think these are the fundamental indicators between really need to talk about

. now those diminished are back, it is primarily for the supply side. it's a demand site. it's only demand which can really increase the growth component and to as you keep producing and people don't have the money. so what is being produced and what is being purchased now after a lot of appeals by the end, yours and by civil society and human rights organizations, workers, organizations, etc, did a transfer of pretty food free in court. okay. and seeing this in court, rising lead was to be given, but in limited quantities in any form they make at some point of time in certain states, in particular. and with a lot of conditionality, that is not non justification for thing, get to the back on the trajectory of growth. i totally disagree with that. i'm not a liberal economist, i don't study what is happening across the country because i'm a politician. i can tell you what is happening and has id, bug and intaquant, because i have visited the speediest towards my self and i have myself given out,

you know, rations to people to make sure that this is happening properly. and what i've heard is, by the way, that it's actually going quite smoothly, the governor said, please do more of you know, prevent anybody from getting food grants, mitchell, the food is to, this is just a little, let me to a developer. did forget to really just gone to the albany as done to the slums gum . come with me. not as a politician. not as a b, b politician. as an ordinary researcher, it's a different worried mr. somehow, even though we're running out of time, that is something i must ask you and this is about the prime minister scares fund, or the pm cares fund. in march 2020, the government launched a fund as to the sing donations from india and overseas to help in the fight. corbett, after repeated repeated quest, a petitions for clarity in our courts and on various other platforms in, in citizens are now told that the pm care's fund is not a government fund. and therefore,

does not have to disclose the size of the fund or any of its expenditure. how is this mr. sin are appropriate in a democracy? logos, it is entirely within the legal framework to establish funds which are not government funds regarding your phones or that are funds of various kinds that can be used for charitable purposes. everything that has been done for pm kids has been done. ask for the legal framework that we have in our pm guest fund. you see is not an official program. it's hosted on an indian government website. it has the prime minister space on its website. the are prime ministers, the ex official chairman of the fund, the ministers of defense form affairs and finance are the trustees of the fund. the website says it was created by the prime minister's office. how can this not be a government fund? and also, when donations were being solicited into this fund, the citizens were never told that this was not a government fund, and this will be a private fund with 0 accountability to the public. absolute thing,

i have complete confidence that whatever has been done has been done, taking into account all of the appropriate legal protocols and all of the appropriate procedures and requirements off running for this game because i'm sure you know all these have been worked out. but let me give you this, we don't, you don't be, don't know, as general public orders the media, how much money is of the fundraiser. now, india spend without an estimate calculating, walked, corporate entities had declared as their donations into this bond. at $1270000000.00 in march. last. yup. this was in the 1st 2 months of the fund. would you be able to tell us where this money has been used to fight cove it and where does the accountability assessment of democracy in a democracy that are various remedies that is violating a legal fame book than of course your remedy is in the course of law there's another set of remedies which is a political sen,

remedies of witches in any democracies through elections. if indeed, that is not to the liking of the public or india, they can express their views through the valid books and as a concept of nicky remedies which is through parliament and fear will verify your position. i'm sure they will take it on the belief that they're not appropriate remedies through dr. chambliss. well, i just like to add something, you know, i think the p n k find, you know, a dog that it knocked down, it was declared on the 25th of march 202026. is this an elite package? and on the 27th of march is that pm get and, and i know on a salad ease in universities and colleges of pensioners of own doctors in the medical institute, went on strike against a one day being got to be put into the b and k fun, i think that be again is, is the most perfect example of how india has fallen from a democracy to laud democracy. this is a,

not just on that one point our government employees handed in their wages to the pm guest fund. do believe that they deserve accountability of how that money is being used. well, i also, you know, essentially donated money to the b and guess fund that was done one and as far as i'm concerned, i think the money has been extremely well spent. we have seen the back of it and i believe that it has had a tremendously valuable door to play during the better. have a final question to the 2 of you. we are seeing foster group as of the last quarter and g d, p numbers that did come in is this sustainable and has indian us economy turned a corner is to say, don't, absolutely, it has turned the corner. as i said, we are seeing a very strong we ship the company you're moving into the grantees that are for very awful growth drivers, which is of course the fiscal and monetary stimulus that's been applied. it's the export growth. it's the startup ecosystem. and of course, the fact that people are diversifying the supply chain, therefore,

what i think is we're going to see very strong, sustainable growth going forward. and that is going to, of course, benefit our workers. it's going to benefit all of us citizens because not just in india, but around the world, you're going to see synchronized, progressive, unseen question to you. do you believe that this growth is sustainable and you believe they've turned a corner for us? yeah, i think the growth is in sectors be you know, very non to provide any kind of sustenance and sustainable livelihood to the people of this country on the sector which has shown some kind of a growth is agricultural. and i guess in spite of the farm acts and in spite of the way that has been good implemented. so now your information is collapsed, your micro smaller units, which have not got any even, even in the last budget. there has been no stimulus. in fact, what it was day as actually been deduced in this,

it don't because been used as good on the game that is developed and the, nor his peers don't ask is donica little bits of data then girl to does not get good. even today, people are struggling for food. so boy girl is going to come is only then you put money in the hands of people. and that's why they don't go to university of basic income. i'm going to live with that. i want to thank or my guests the giving us time professor devonne an assistant. ok. thank you for your time. thank you so much for speaking with us on context it and finally that out. a multitude of artists in india has been creating, worked through the long months of the pandemic. we wanted to feature some very languages, they work in and the perspectives that they bring this week, the closing for the next up to for wrap, track in family, one of the languages of south india. title to want to come by this. it translates to welcome bye. this is been written and performed by a 27 year old,

single wrapper and middest. his work is about social justice and deals, especially with the politics of cost. in india, this track is about reclaiming a sense of humanity. miss the crisis of the vice. i'll see you next week on context india with

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