“The current pandemic is probably the first global event in the history of the human race,” says Branko Milanović, the consistently insightful Serbian-American economist, and specialist on the topic of inequality. Milanović explains: “To be global, the event has to be experienced more or less equally by everyone at the same time. A global labour market will come into existence without the need for migration.” He concludes: “Global value chains and trade might suffer a temporary setback. Now, another massive dispute, punctuated by the biggest strike in world history, as over 200 million workers observed the nationwide “bandh” supporting the withdrawal of legislations seen as anti-labour and anti-farmer. All this past fortnight, instead of readying itself for the new global economy, the Indian work force has been on the streets.

Source: Dhaka Tribune December 10, 2020 20:03 UTC