Less chance than a snowball in hell.

The State of Working India 2021 report by the Azim Premji University "estimates that the number of individuals below India's minimum wage threshold increased by 230 million during the pandemic. But for covid, the number would have fallen by 50 million," wrote Prof V Anantha Nageswaran. This while companies are reporting double digit growth in profits, which means that companies are protecting profits by sacking workers. "In April 2020, India had about 18.1 million white-collar workers. By April 2021, the number had plummeted to 13.8 million, according to an estimate made by Mitali Nikore, an economist and the founder of Nikore Associates, a think tank," wrote Gautam Das. "Nearly every company laid off workers, sometimes silently. The 'trimming of the fat' to shore up profitability continued well into December quarter for many firms," Mint. "According to calculations by economists at State Bank of India, out of pocket healthcare expenses and loss of income because of illness will set families back by 660 billion rupees ($9 billion)," wrote Andy Mukherjee. As consumers cut spending, "That will force producers to tighten belts once again to keep investors happy, even though, at the aggregate level, cost-cutting is a zero-sum game. Firms' expenses are households' income. If consumers don't earn enough, insipid demand will prompt India Inc to make deeper cuts, worsening the situation for everyone." What is the solution? Nageswaran recommends more donations of money to the government by companies, more trust between the government and the people and, "A grand pact among political parties and between governments and India Inc to address short- and medium-term national priorities will reverse the public mood of diffidence and pessimism over the future." After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi comprehensively lost the assembly election in West Bengal, moneycontrol, the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) "arrested Trinamool Congress (TMC) ministers, Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, sitting MLA Madan Mitra and former mayor Sovan Chatterjee, in connection with the Narada sting operation of 2016", Business Standard. Strangely, Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, who defected from the TMC to the BJP, and also featured in the sting, were not arrested, Times of India (TOI). The BJP brought down the Puducherry government by engineering defections which "is now a pattern of Machiavellian intrigue that has been repeated from Arunachal and Manipur to Goa, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh where a ruthlessly expansionist BJP seeks to consolidate its ascendancy by wangling either wholesale or retail defections", wrote Rajdeep Sardesai. "In Kerala, the BJP is resolutely widening its base, even while remaining a fair distance away from conquering it. In Bengal, on the other hand, the gloves are off. Should Didi's Kolkata fortress fall to the sustained BJP assault, we could be pretty close to an 'opposition-mukt' (free of opposition) Bharat with serious implications for the future of an increasingly strained multi-party democracy," Hindustan Times (HT). "Modi has made a mockery of federalism, he is genetically unwilling to share power, just as he cannot share the credit for anything," wrote Avay Shukla. His aim is to create a "One Nation, One Party" future and, "In pursuit of this he has used the CBI, NIA, ED, Income Tax department and friendly police forces to target leaders of political parties; the thousands of crores in the opaque electoral bonds that have been gainfully utilised to pull down democratically elected governments in nine states, elections have been customised to suit the BJP's strategy." Editor of Republic TV Arnav Goswami apparently knew of the government's plans of an air strike on Balakot in Pakistan occupied Kashmir on 26 February 2019, days before the actual strike, Dawn, prompting an angry Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to accuse Modi of risking a war to win the general election in March 2019, Economic Times. Prof Nageswaran's hopes of a "A grand pact among political parties" has about as much chance as a 'snowball's chance in hell'. Maybe, even less.