europa.eu (28.02.2021) The European Commission has presented a green paper to launch a broad policy debate on the challenges and opportunities of Europe's ageing society. It sets out the impact of this pronounced demographic trend across our economy and society and invites the public to express their views on how to respond to this in a public consultation, which will run for 12 weeks.

sciencedirect.com (2021) COVID-19 induced significant economic and social disruptions in India. Rural households, including smallholders, were affected by loss in migrant income, livelihood and farm and non-farm incomes. During this lockdown, the Indian government enacted several emergency legislations to provide direct and indirect relief to workers and households. India’s COVID-19 social assistance package, namely, PM-GKY, announced in March 2020, was designed to provide immediate relief to the vulnerable population.

The Indian Express (02.02.2021) The Budget for 2021-22 (April-March) also proposes to launch a portal that would collect relevant information on gig economy workers, including those working in building and construction, among others.

Research ICT Africa (January 2021) This RIA policy brief examines how technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), can be deployed to scale social protection programmes as well as reduce corruption in the disbursement of social protection grants, which the COVID-19 lockdowns, have revealed are vital lifelines for the most vulnerable.

worldbank.org (01.02.2021) The COVID-19 pandemic is testing global food and social protection systems at an unprecedented scale. The spread of the pandemic is disrupting food systems and undermining the food and nutrition security of households.

UN News (25.02.2021) Job losses or reduced working hours due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic cost the world the equivalent of 255 million jobs in 2020, the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Monday, noting that the “massive impact” was nearly four times the number lost during the 2009 global financial crisis. 

Oxfam (Feb 2021)  The report shows that COVID-19 has the potential to increase economic inequality in almost every country at once, the first time this has happened since records began over a century ago. Rising inequality means it could take at least 14 times longer for the number of people living in poverty to return to pre-pandemic levels than it took for the fortunes of the top 1,000, mostly White male, billionaires to bounce back.

The Edition (21.01.2021) The United Nations (UN) and Maldives on Thursday signed a project document on digitialising social services in order to better protect women and girls from poverty and violence during emergency situations.

ideasforindia.in (21.01.2021) Urban slum-dwellers are among the groups that are most at-risk of Covid-19, and their precarious situation is further compounded by rampant misinformation regarding the Virus. Based on a survey of about 4,000 households in slum areas in Uttar Pradesh, this article shows that recorded phone messages from doctors giving information on Covid-19 – along with high financial incentives to pay attention – can debunk related fake news.

The Guardian (25.01.2021) Women and young workers bear brunt of job losses and reductions in hours, says UN labour body