THREAD: In 2019, the Indian government decided to hide an important pan-India official survey on consumer spending. The data has been used to calculate the poverty and inequality levels in India. I broke the story in November 2019 after a whistleblower handed me a copy of the consumer spending report's findings.

The data showed a grim picture on consumer spending, which fell for the first time in over 40 years, sparking fears that poverty might have inched up.

🚨New Investigation🚨

A year after the Modi govt came to power in 2014, India's finance ministry accused the Reserve Bank of India of setting interest rates to benefit developed countries & sought a probe. I write for @reporters_co & @AJEnglish

aljazeera.com/economy/2022/4… Then finance secretary Rajiv Mehrishi made the claim on government records months after signing a monetary policy agreement with RBI governor Raghuram Rajan in 2015. The RBI was to prioritise controlling rising prices. But Mehrishi wanted sharp rate cuts to lower borrowing costs.

.@reporters_co has worked for 3 months gathering, translating & analysing physical death registers from 68 out of all the 170 municipalities in Gujarat.

@tapasya_umm, @shreegireesh and @nit_set find that the state govt undercounted deaths by 27 times!

thewire.in/health/gujarat… The Gujarat government couldn't mask its failure to manage the second COVID wave, thanks to the exposé by the vernacular press. They mostly relied on issued death certificates as a tool to assess the toll.

Here, @reporters_co reached for the primary source - death registers.

Personal update: I have joined as a member of The Reporters' Collective and I am totally thrilled about this new journey! The Reporters' Collective (reporters-collective.in) is a deep-dive journalism collaborative that publishes reportage on matters of public interest across languages and mediums.

It has been over a month since I took a major step back and left my job, thanks to something called #burnout. I had hit a wall.... A thread: Burnout is beyond exhaustion. Not only do you feel that you have no energy left to work, even if it's the kind of work that you enjoy, you also feel detached. Cynicism takes over, efficiency takes a hit and nothing seems to pull you up.

Happy Easter!

We, at @BloombergQuint, scooped hundreds of pages of correspondences which culminated into the Modi govt's most ambitious privatisation policy.

We broke it down into 4 parts and ran a series of stories starting March 24. Here's a recap of #ThePrivatisationFiles: In part I, you will get to read about the pushback the new policy received from key ministries, often backed by the Cabinet Ministers.

How easy will it then be for the Modi govt. to drive the privatisation policy?

#PrivatisationFiles

bit.ly/2PpWDFP

Part II of #ThePrivatisationFiles:
A week before presenting the Budget in Feb., the Modi government decided to go aggressive on its privatisation plan & introduced significant changes to the proposed policy drafted in July 2020.

But...

bloombergquint.com/business/modis… The government wanted to be just in time. So, the team shepherding the new policy skipped over some of the processes laid down for inter-departmental consultations.

bloombergquint.com/business/modis…

Scoop: The Modi government’s push towards privatisation—the strongest India has seen in many years—faced resistance from key ministries within the administration.

Beginning today, we will tell you the story of 'The Privatisation Files.'

Read here: bloombergquint.com/business/priva… The privatisation policy, which was announced in the Budget, has divided sectors into strategic and non-strategic. While the govt will keep “bare minimum presence” in strategic sectors, all firms in the non-strategic sectors will be considered for privatisation/merger/closure.

Exclusive: The government plans to introduce grandfathering provisions under the labour codes to ensure that the gratuity outgo for companies does not significantly rise after the new law comes into effect from the next fiscal (2021-22)
bloombergquint.com/economy-financ… This after concerns were raised that some of the new provisions in the labour laws for computing wages and gratuity will bump up costs for companies.

A personal update: Monday was my last day at Business Standard and I can truly count the past 3 years as the golden phase of my career, where I got the opportunity to not only report but also break some of the biggest news stories during this period. From January, I will be writing for the @BloombergQuint.

Even though I will miss the adrenaline rush of finding my byline in the paper every morning, I am really excited about starting a new journey with a digital platform.

Breaking: India's chief economic advisor wants the junked consumer spending report to be made public. Krishnamurthy Subramanian wrote to the National Statistical Commission seeking the survey report of 2017-18 for analysis in the upcoming Economic Survey.

business-standard.com/article/econom… Consumer spending fell for the first time in more than four decades in 2017-18, primarily driven by slackening rural demand, sparking fears of rising poverty in the country. The government withheld the report which was made public by us in November, 2019:

business-standard.com/article/econom…

Thread: Instead of hiking retrenchment compensation for workers, the Modi government has mooted a reskilling fund in the new labour codes.

Retrenched workers will get cash benefits to the tune of 15 days of their last drawn salary. But here's the catch. Retrenched workers who take cash benefits from the new reskilling fund mooted in the labour codes may have to show proof of reskilling to the government.

But the story doesn't end here...

business-standard.com/article/econom…

Work in the private sector? Thanks to the Modi government, your company can now convert your permanent job into a fixed term contract and take away your retrenchment benefits.

Read our story:

business-standard.com/article/econom… While the farm Bills created a lot of controversy, contentious labour law changes had no-takers.

The government quietly did away with a key safeguard norm for workers to deter firms from converting existing permanent jobs into fixed-term contracts.

Just in: Ten central trade unions (which does not include RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh) to go on a one-day nationwide strike on November 26 against labour codes and new farm laws. Demands of trade unions:
*Cash transfer of Rs 7500 a month for all non-income tax paying families
*10 kg free ration/person a month to all needy
*Expansion of MGNREGA to provide 200 days’ work in a year in rural areas at enhanced wages; extension of employment guarantee to cities

Six months after a national lockdown was imposed, I travelled to 5 villages of Allahabad (now known as Prayagraj) to talk to over two dozen migrant workers who returned home.

"Nothing feels like home" for them as they struggle to make ends meet.

business-standard.com/article/econom… Ramesh Chand (right) was 15 yrs old when his brother-in-law took him to Mumbai & gave him a job at his garment factory after his father died. Srivastava (now 46), who had made the 'city of dreams' his own, wasnt paid for during the lockdown even by his guardian.

Must read: The labour codes approved by the Parliament earlier this week gives the States unbridled powers to make changes to labour laws without going through the legislative route.

Getting the labour codes approved was a cakewalk for the government.

business-standard.com/article/econom… The move will help industries in pushing authorities for exemption under various labour laws at a micro-level, along with demanding changes to bring greater flexibility in their operations related to retrenchment, safety standards, and collective bargaining.

The government’s proposed labour law changes will facilitate easier dismissal of workers as companies employing up to 300 workers will not be required to frame standing orders for its workforce. A thread on the importance of standing orders: A standing order is a legally binding collective employment contract and holds significance as it contains key work-related terms and conditions and is meant to prevent arbitrary dismissal of employees.

In @bsindia today: The government has proposed a sea change in India's contract labour system. Companies will be encouraged to hire contract workers in all areas of operations, even as more firms will come out of the ambit of the contract labour law.

business-standard.com/article/econom… The country’s present contract labour law, known as the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, is designed in a way that it is meant to encourage permanent roles, along with abolishing contract workers in jobs of “perennial nature”.

The government has proposed widening the coverage of migrant workers under labour laws, along with extending more social security benefits to the working class most affected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

business-standard.com/article/econom… All workers earning up to Rs 18,000 who migrate from one state to another will be covered under the proposed law.

Under the present law, migrant workers were covered under labour laws only if they were hired through contractors.

BREAKING: Government has proposed to do away with the need for companies, hiring up to 300 workers, to frame a 'standing order' which states key employment terms for its workforce. This will give more teeth to companies to ‘hire and fire’ workers.

business-standard.com/article/compan… A standing order acts as a statutory collective rights document stating the most important terms and conditions in a standardized manner for workers. According to an SC judgment, it overrides even the individual contracts between employers and employees in that particular unit.

NPAs of state-owned banks in respect of loans disbursed towards the government's flagship Mudra scheme rose sharply to 4.92% in 2019-20, compared to 3.8% in the previous year.

The RBI has been red-flagging the NPA worries in Mudra loans.

business-standard.com/article/financ… Despite a steady rise in NPAs, the government continues to set higher targets for banks to disburse loans under the Mudra scheme to small entrepreneurs. It continued to do so for 2020-21, asking banks to make it a priority.