Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption An empty stretch of the road and Delhi Police barricades to screen commuters during lockdown, at Delhi Gate on April 16, 2020 in New Delhi, India.
India has eased some restrictions imposed as part of a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Most of the new measures are targeted at easing pressure on farming, which employs more than half the nation’s workforce.
Allowing farms to operate again has been seen as essential to avoid food shortages.
But some other measures announced last week, will not be implemented.
This includes the delivery of non-essential items such as mobile phones, computers, and refrigerators by e-commerce firms – the government reversed its decision on that on Sunday.
And none of the restrictions will be lifted in areas that are still considered “hotspots” for the virus – this includes all major Indian cities.
Domestic and international flights and inter-state travel will also remain suspended.
So what restrictions are being eased?
Most of the new measures target agricultural businesses – farming, fisheries and plantations. This will allow crops to be harvested and daily-wagers and others working in these sectors to continue earning.
To restore the supply chain in these industries, cargo trucks will also be allowed to operate across state borders to transport produce from villages to the cities.
Essential public works programmes – such as building roads and water lines in rural areas – will also reopen, but under strict instructions to follow social distancing norms. These are a huge source of employment for hundreds of thousands of daily-wage earners, and farmers looking to supplement their income.
Banks, ATMs, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and government offices will remain open. And the self-employed – such as plumbers, electricians and carpenters – will also be allowed to work.
Some public and even private workplaces have been permitted to open in areas that are not considered hotspots.
But all businesses and services that reopen are expected to follow social distancing norms.
Who decides what to reopen?
State governments will decide where restrictions can be eased. And several state chief ministers, including Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal, have said that none of the restrictions will be lifted in their regions.
Mr Kejriwal said the situation in the national capital was still serious and the decision would be reviewed after one week.
India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, will also see all restrictions in place, as will the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.
The southern state of Kerala, which has been widely acknowledged for its success in dealing with the virus, has announced a significant easing of the lockdown in areas that it has demarcated as “green” zones.
This includes allowing private vehicular movement and dine-in services at restaurants, with social distancing norms in place. However, it’s implementing what is known as an “odd-even” scheme – private cars with even and odd number plates will be allowed only on alternate days, to limit the number of people on the road.
KUNMING, March 3 (Xinhua) — China’s social endowment insurance for rural and urban residents has covered over 523 million people by the end of 2018, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS).
Over 49 million people in poverty have benefited from the insurance program directly, MOHRSS data showed.
The unemployment insurance premium has allocated 1.82 billion yuan (about 272 million U.S. dollars) of living subsidies to 402,000 migrant workers who had lost their jobs, the ministry said.
The social endowment insurance program covers groups including the self-employed, rural migrant workers and farmers, providing pensions for their retirement.
China faces the challenge of building a more sustainable pension system as its population ages.
By 2018, China had 249 million people aged 60 and above, accounting for 17.9 percent of its total population, becoming a country with the largest and fastest-growing aged population in the world.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — The numbers of China’s private companies and self-employed households have grown rapidly over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, according to the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR).
By the end of October 2018, China has 71.37 million self-employed households and 30.67 million private companies, growing at least 500-fold and 338-fold, respectively.
China only had 140,000 self-employed households in 1978 when it launched its reform and opening up. And the number of private companies on registration was 90,500 in 1989.
The numbers of private economic entities boomed during the past decades as the government kept improving business environment, including loosening restrictions on business registration.
The private sector now plays an important role in the Chinese economy, contributing to more than half of tax revenue, 60 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), 70 percent of technological innovation and new products, 80 percent of urban employment and 90 percent of new jobs.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 