Rural India gets a mini-public works boost

In the space of a couple of months, rural India has been transformed into its new avatar as the Great Saviour of the Indian economy. With manufacturing and services reeling from their worst ever depression in decades because of the Covid lockdown, a good kharif sowing season coupled with adequate monsoon rains has raised hopes that the rural economy would prop up consumer spending and incomes. On its own though, this is likely to be an over-hyped expectation. The rural economy cannot be decoupled from the non-agricultural sector because it is heavily dependent on it for remittances from urban migrants.