Heena Sharma Blog

  As 2020 was dawning, the oldest members of the world's youngest generation - Generation Z - were preparing to emerge into one of the strongest global job markets in decades. That promising landscape was shredded in a matter of months with the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic . Unemployment soared everywhere, but it visited with a fury on the ranks of the youngest workers, often over-represented in service industries like restaurants and travel that were struck hardest by business shutdowns and restrictions on consumer movement and activities. When the pandemic struck in the first quarter of 2020, the youth labor market bracket - 15-to-24-year-olds in most economic statistics - had only just begun to claw back some of their share of the job market lost during the 2007-2009 Great Recession. In the Group of 7 advanced economies, young workers went from accounting for 11.2% of all those employed at the end of 2019 to just 10% at the end of June, according to data from th...

As the Narendra Modi -led central government continues to pick pieces in the puzzle to rein in the coronavirus pandemic in India, the economic costs of the nationwide lockdown on millions of poor could be catastrophic. Projections based on a recent analysis by researchers at the United Nations University (UNU) show that, in the worst case scenario, 104 million more people in India could fall below the World Bank-determined poverty line of $3.2 a day for lower-middle-income countries. At present, 60 per cent of India’s population, or an estimated 812 million people, live below that poverty line. In effect, the coronavirus pandemic and the economic consequences of an extended business shutdown could swell the ranks of India’s poorest to 915 million. From 60 per cent, the proportion of people below the poverty line could increase to 68 per cent – a situation seen in the country more than a decade ago. Much of the Indian government’s efforts to mitigate poverty over the years coul...

The Budget session was inaugurated today with the President’s address. The Budget would be presented by Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2020. General Election 2019 saw the opposition try to corner the Narendra Modi government on the issues of a slowing economy, unemployment and rural distress. The voters however reposed their faith in the government and gave it an even bigger mandate. The state of the economy however has continued to be the biggest cause of worry for the government. Not only has unemployment reached record high levels, GDP growth has tanked and India may go by a less than 5 per cent in this fiscal year. The state of the economy is what makes Budget 2020 very important. How important is the Budget for the government politically? What can the government do to mitigate the political risk? Is it the best chance for Modi 2.0 to announce major economic reforms? Read More

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to the nation that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes — 86 per cent of all currency notes in circulation in value — would cease to be legal tender. The stated objectives were unearthing black money, cracking down on counterfeit currency, and choking terror financing. Unsurprisingly, there were strong reactions both in favour of and against the unprecedented move, which would come to be known as ‘ demonetisation ’ or ‘ note ban ’. While some hailed it as a courageous step against impropriety that was hurting the economy, others saw the move itself as disastrous for the economy. In the months that followed, even as reports suggested that the government had not come any close to achieving its stated objectives, the government was seen patting itself on the back for the country’s move towards becoming a ‘cashless’ economy, or, as the PM said, a ‘less-cash’ economy. Many called this an act of ‘moving goal posts’ and rushe...