Welcome to the Political Fix by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, a newsletter on Indian politics and policy. To get it in your inbox, sign up h...
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The Big Story: ‘India survives in its villages’
After months of terrible news on the Covid-19 front – India crossed the 5,00,000 case mark last week – and dire warnings about the impact of the lockdown on the economy, some good news has finally surfaced.
The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy pointed out that India’s unemployment rate has fallen to its pre-lockdown level of 8.5% in the week that ended June 21. Joblessness had spiked massively in March, April and May, reaching a peak of 27.1% in the week that ended May 3.
But this dramatic bounce-back has not occurred because the economy has returned to its pre-lockdown levels of functioning. Buried under that 8.5% number is an important shift, as the CMIE noted:
“The urban unemployment has fallen sharply but, it is still distinctly higher than the pre-lockdown levels. In the latest week ended June 21, the rate was down to 11.2 %....
