How can India's economy grow in the midst of a pandemic, without compromising the health of the working population and aggravating the transmission of COVID-19?
An alternative heterodox explanation of the phenomenon of jobless growth is advanced, involving an interaction between demand and technical change. A mathematical condition is derived whose satisfaction ensures that both a high and low rate of growth of output results in a fall in the rate of growth of organised sector employment. During an output boom, the high rate of growth of labour productivity overwhelms the high rate of output growth, while in a period of slowdown the low or negative rate of growth of output more than compensates for the reduction in the rate of growth of labour productivity, resulting in persistent jobless growth.
Tamil Nadu is confronted with a water crisis that is adversely affecting agriculture, industry, services, and households. The principal crop in Tamil Nadu is rice, which is water intensive. Millets, in general, are less water intensive and more capable of withstanding drought conditions. An agroecological system of farming millets ought to take into account not only water use, but also the whole gamut of political and ecological issues that are connected to farming such as public procurement, land reform, minimum support price, subsidised credit, agricultural extension services, and so on. The publicly procured millet output may be distributed through the public distribution system, government schools, and through the network of Amma canteens in the state.
