Tensions not to mention the small matter of a looming election join me Steve Clemons in conversation with leading voices on the bottom line your weekly take on u. S. Politics and society on aljazeera. Santa maria this is counting the cost on aljazeera a weekly look at the world of business and economics this week india Prime MinisterNarendra Modi rushes through the labor reforms as the pandemic and his own economic failures crash the indian jobs markets also from a trade war to a new cold war china time who its grip on hong kong the United States sanctions chinese officials through it all can hong kong remain ages number one Financial Center. And modern shout and skin design of the types of roles which might once have been called passing fads. Now some of the thousands of jobs being created in the virtual world. All about to come on this weeks show but we are starting in india where Prime MinisterNarendra Modis stunned many last year with his expansive election victory a victory and a mandate which he has really used 1st there was a populist hindu nationalist programme then taking a firm grip on kashmir rolling out that divisive citizenship rule and doing little to stop the mob attacks on protesters surely the economy has prospered right. Well modi promised to create 10000000 jobs a year but he didnt and his plan to tackle corruption with a ban on certain banknotes hit the poorest the hardest on his make in India Campaign has really struggled for any traction he announced a 266000000000. 00 Stimulus Program to see the economy through the pandemic but when all was said and done economists crunched the numbers to find there was little substance to all the rhetoric in fact economists at Goldman Sachs believe the Indian Economy will contract a staggering 45 percent in the 2nd quarter and with the pandemic threat looming modis decision to lock down the country stranded tens of millions of Migrant Workers and killed off 120000000 jobs pretty much overnight and thats what were going to look at now the accusation that indias government has used the coronavirus emergency to exploit millions of workers after 2 months of lockdown some of indias biggest states have suspended most labor laws apparently trying to restart the economy but the trade unions say changes to working hours wages health and Safety Standards theyve all weekend workers rights at the very time they are paralyzed by the lockdown restrictions. More discussion on the state of indias economy with reports from new delhi. Is the production of clothes for his designer label in his workshop and. Sales fell by 70 percent in the past 2 months and heyman says hell have to layoff around 75. 00 of his 300. 00 employees. The suspension of most of the states labor laws he no longer needs the governments permission to fire in this difficult time. This is what was very important. From the government. Which is home to 230000000. 00 people is one of many states to change its labor laws including getting rid of the minimum wage extended working hours and juicing employee benefits. The states say the changes will help businesses and get the worlds 5th largest economy back on track. Paying the price. As soon as the. Womans with factory hes worked in for for his. Work is continuing at the company and 800000 people. New workers have been hired on daily wages and none of those who used to work at the company have been brought back. Trade unions say the revised laws will drive down wages in a country where the minimum is just over 2. 00 a day Union Leaders defined guidelines to protest in new delhi which Police Quickly dismissed more than when. I got. A good idea. Of the country i know they are saying i am going to. Ever live in america. The biggest changes have been in states ruled by promised on the day the modis bought the a jump the Party Critics say the governments using the economic slump to push through. With its plans to 1st be connected 6 years ago and at a time when people on to now to protest the International Labor organization has warned 400000000 and dns could slip into poverty as a result of indias lock down and as urging promise to modi to send a clear message to states to home labels and protect workers from exploitation with us now on skype from chennai is now an atomicity is a senior economist at the research and Business Consultancy frost and sullivan nice to have you with us. In the renter modi as we said has been able to push through all of these reforms pretty much across the country now 1st of all i think reform might be a bit of a misnomer because reforms are just something positive happening and for millions of people this is not positive is it also its temporary in many cases so really where will all of this leave india right so i think its important to stress that where were seeing these reforms across the states of the privileged but given the anguish of that and what were seeing is a lot of exemption dont leave the laws for repeat it of 3 year olds and to no question on the point of the elimination of this theo clause i think there is a big risk factor attached to this for example if the idea is to attract investments to india obviously if a Manufacturing Firm for example is looking to invest in india for the long haul the looking to be assured that the steady conditions in the long haul so i think its important that these changes that are got to be the last im not seen as an end all in themselves but they should be viewed as a stopgap measure and this time created if it is or even if not a time frame if its really back should sort of be you must feel much more concise to decisions and a much more concrete position making process and i think i believe its very important. Just strike that very fine balance to ensure that the name of lawyer farms and shore like a pro business and my meant also ensure a strong welcome protection because its fair to see that the and the minish and the blanket and the mission of the laws of course comes with a lot of risk in terms of the protection of work ok so look at rejection many of you about the stimulus the nih how 260 6000000000. 00 with it was who saw the benefit of that did the everyday indian and there are many of them obviously but did they get the benefit was it more just for the Financial Sector the accent if you look into the details of the fiscal stimulus package you will definitely see that its a lot more skewed towards the monetary support saved with regards to be free loans or liquidity free loans but that being said on the other side i think theres a 2nd sense is that the euro impact in terms of direct Government Spending is quite low but like i dont believe i actually did earlier i think we have to look at this as a wait and trot wait and watch approach sorry the government possibly is not letting go of all its monetary and fiscal stimulus ammunition in one bowl and theres obviously nobody knows how the emanations he is going to look like in the next couple of months you could or the government could be reserving some of these measures for later on to be fair to be trying to be a leader to 1350000000 people is for you cant you cant be everything to anyone just by sheer numbers but there does seem to be a disconnect between the base which he has obviously. Looked after and then the weaker parts of society which havent felt it has that been a political and an economic mistake yes i do think that we asking the definition see when it comes to the. Demand same in the sense that perhaps we should be seeing it what you see in other countries the jascha johns bus to the poor no wage subsidies to copper its just sort of tight now but again that are the important things to consider in the sense that indias fiscal head especially in times of treating downgrade so in a bit of a cricket is condition but you could see some of these measures the underwood over. The next couple of months what weve seen so far is just sort of just keep business running and to tighten up now as we speak the lock downs are being eased weve seen pictures of shopping malls reopening and the like i mean you have you got a sense of maybe how damaging this period has been and how how india will and can recover from it so thats why the lockdown is being eased and i think our numbers from january to march 2020 which are outright now give you a good picture of what can be expected so john you did too much of 2020 that Indian Economy grew at a party of each of 3 point one percent which was a 44 year old little and in that january too much heat essentially captured just one week off the effective got down because of a lot of it was in april and me so looking forward this quarter of course going to be a lot weaker up and next net full of the fiscal year that brought in great now thats 22021. 00 would expect in the contraction of 4. 8 percent and i believe its important to note this is not purely because of the lockdown except of course a huge amount of it is the lockdown itself but as the economy starts to cuts of course political lot of time to get the businesses to get action on the Consumer Sentiment to start to be to buy for that confidence and that meant to be restored and a lot of industries are going to tape. To get cupboard and the other goods and. Quickly on string your point on what is important to restoring your growth. I believe that the restoration of the confidence factor amongst consumers is very important for that demand side to private and this is of course tied to the containment of the virus itself to a large extent and i mean this and i would say on the other side its important for the government to sort of put out consistent and reallocate their messaging on precautionary measures social distancing and equally important of trying to outlets to follow the save so when you was a consumer step out youre confident about what youre getting into what are you going into you know exactly now the time that its been great talking to thank you for joining us this week. Thank you so much. Theyre saying in asia now but heading further east to hong kong which has long held the crown as the biggest Financial Center in the region behind new york and london it is ranked 3rd in the world at 4. 9 trillion dollars but what happens when all that gets undermined by what is ultimately hong kongs controlling power chinas decision to stamp out ongoing democracy protests with a National Security bill has been controversial and while hong kongs benchmark index lost 7 percent last month there is no evidence that International Investors have rushed for the exit what there is evidence of however is china flooding the market with capital to give the impression of business as usual meanwhile the United States has threatened to sanction chinese officials who are closely tied to the security clampdown decision by chinese officials in light of the protests over the Police Killing of a black man in the u. S. So what does the future hold for hong kong status as a Financial Center lets ask our regular contributor ruben in hong kong he is a professor for asian initiatives at the university of nevada as i see Business School always good to see you Ruben Hong Kong has always been prized for its independence for its High International standards with all these changes coming in from beijing surely that is under threat well we have 1st to see what truly is the law is going to say soft far lost in that and therefore the reaction whether its from the International Community or from hong kong itself well have to wait for the law to come out and well see how how trump going to respond to it threats is this. Going to draw the independence from hong kong. A special autonomous region of china its going to say you are special but miss the region wants to revoke that. That depends on what chile china means by the special security act it was going to impose on hong kong so its premature to to make now by any other. Outcome what will be the the fact however people are prepared in this community has made statements are tycoons and billionaires made statements in general supporting supporting the the proposed law because it will give them stability and then also hearing you have no choice but lets look at some of the anecdotal evidence that youve got to u. K. Banks Standard Chartered have both backing beijings position but then you also have reports of some hedge funds which may be considering moving out what more do you hear about i guess if some companies have some banks are getting a bit spooked by it all the bottom line is. China wants hong kong because the biggest the biggest beneficiary of hong kong is really china since the handover hong kong has become the the place center of chinese hot money so china prefers that they have hong kong in reach all of the mind the players in in china could not do it in china because its not good for the domestic economy can do it in hong kong imagine its like how gambling is illegal in any part of china then they are allowed out in the sense so. So it is the same thing in any way they want to be our cities because there is no replacement shanghai and not be enough but this is what i wanted to ask you how your Financial Center has china has china taken any steps to make Mainland China look more attractive for International Banks and inviolable investors. Remember that a few days ago they announced one of these special Economic Zones one of the 5 special Economic Zones they werent there any of another how come thats not going to happen at least not in the foreseeable future not in my lifetime im probably not in the next 50 years for us any place in china its under the control of the Central Government and the Bank Hong Kong because hong kong was inherited the all its characteristics of practice 6 that made it international the only really International City within chinese territory just funny but you touched on this earlier talking about what how President Trump will react we always look to that just give me your views briefly on on how damaging potentially the u. S. And its decision to change its status or the way it used hong kong help potentially damaging that could be but there are 4 air yes were talking about here it whatever trump does it will be you can fall in generally in the reading of these 4 areas one east irish one is the use of dollars. Of the current year for transactions and trade surges there are restrictions on on the soft power absolute Technology Science education and all of that and the 4th is sanctions on china all seashells for example restrictions on travel. On then defied us people specific personalities that trumpery really say i have been responsible for this so all of those the sauce freezing their ounces in the us all of those so thats the 4th so ive got to be the effect our if i think it will be difficult because its. Really on cedars hong kong no more on authonomy is in the auckland was in in terms of trade then theres the whole parish system thats been imposed on china on face one of the trade war right to hong kong so i dont think thats going to thats going to happen because thats also detrimental to the. The u. S. In in some sense because hong kong really dont produce our own we are a reeks sporting onion ring so out sorry not country terrifying to me. Ok but i think the the it will begin with the soft power for example sanctions on china and hong kong the shots so restrictions on access to Sensitive TechnologyScientific Research education all cited go up go up 1st on the sanctions and seashells then secondly sanctions on the soft power issues under strict sense of oh and then 3rd will be the restriction on the dollar that is serious because a serious and chips ricciardo kind of the way in which we read u. S. Dollar. Chinas foreign reserves 45 percent of that is the nominated in us dollars so therefore china in fact thanks that china limits the flow of u. S. Dollars outside chinese territory so that then the last one retires i think that is the is the lessons of history before youll begin to be the soft power really score some ethnic type of effect the empire us china the whole thing of this is just drop believes that hes the only one who can really confront china on the bluff you know of china ok and this is i think the main goal that thank you for all your time in your thoughts there ribbon wanders out joining us from Hong Kong Well weve already talked about jobs this week in relation to india but the fact is hundreds of millions of jobs have been lost worldwide because of this corona virus pandemic while those who can and that includes i should say the producers and editors of the show have been working from home using Online Technology to keep us all connected. But believe it or not theres been Jobs Creation to the virtual economy it continues to grow it employs hundreds of thousands of people it is worth 100000000000. 00 a year which actually makes it bigger than the global Film Industry just one example for you farmers not the ones who deal with crops and cattle but rather the term given to people who sail in game items to other online players there are more than 100 50000. 00 people worldwide earning up to 25000. 00 a year doing that its been popular in venezuela where these socalled farmers can earn 40. 00 a month remembering the country is rife with unemployment and the average wage is only 750. 00 a month latella is a forsyte company its part of being john egan is the c. E. O. Joining us from paris this week john thanks for your time so mada shout skin design i had to do some research i had no idea what these things meant you know shot cost or apparently is a commentator on a sports and things that i mean im sorry to be boring here but are these real jobs are these sustainable jobs. Well 2 different questions coming so are there real jobs yes certainly and theres quite a few people employed in the right now are this istana will think what were seeing though is that theres hundreds of thousands of people now deriving an income from virtual economies and while some of them might disappear certainly some of them will be amazing could they become an aspirational job even though im just thinking back to when weve seen previous quote unquote dot com bubbles and their births now i dont think were in that territory now i think quote unquote dot com is just part of life so is it different now can these become jobs which people actually work towards. Well some of them already are and examples for instance people will be familiar with 2nd life as for years sustain businesses within the platform so much so that 65000000. 00 in income was actually withdrawn from 2nd life last year to businesses that exist on the platform thats just one example there are a lot of that are transients i accept but some of those jobs that are aspirational ready are jobs like streamers and you sports theyre already mainstream but i think one of the things we look at where the emerging jobs the jobs that are only at the beginning and maybe sometimes are more supplemental in their income profile than the our primary like what. Like for instance. Virtual os the creators and virtual good creators so we are seeing an increase in the emergence of dissension lies cityscape platforms examples would be to central and crypto voxels and some of them space and on these platforms paper creating virtual artifacts secured by a technology called non fungible tokens and these n. F. T. Is non fungible tokens not only does it provide provenance to the actual virtual asset itself as a good but they also establish uniqueness and in creating uniqueness of establishing and around that value weve seen the emergence of secondary markets that will support a qualification of value for those virtual goods so one instance of one example would be the emergence of people who are creating virtual goods virtual our Virtual Assets ok lets talk about existing jobs then because what the pandemic has showed and it was through necessity is that working from home is doable and it was actually pretty quick i thought the way people switched to it in the technology was clearly there to be able to to make it happen does that mean it should carry on once and i hate this phrase once will this is over because who knows when it will be on a yes thats a part of the intrinsic nature of this question is complicated because were not really sure what the new normal would be and whether were right but i would expect that we will see a degradation in the level of involvement within virtual in this enormous spike over the last couple of months primarily in principle due to the pandemic what you would expect or certainly we would expect that ones life returns to normal there will be a significant portion of people that maintain their immersions within these Virtual Worlds within these virtual platforms on a more permanent basis our expectation is that well see stock prices and gaming stocks decrease will expect to see levels of downloads for additional gaming decrease but that behavior is now established as 34 months of that behavior and weve also seen a significant amount of job loss of people are looking for you ways to create income on virtual bass lines on that issue of job loss that has been horrendous all over the world what youll full on recovery because i guess. So much will be dependent on how many people are able to be rehired by companies maybe companies are just saying to me look we have to let you go because were going to go under if we dont but rehiring will be key rehiring is a complicated thing you know historically we see the the highest race of a decrease to unemployment peak at about 8. 7 percent a year so if you see a drop of 7 percent unemployment you will tipperary 7 percent in employment you will typically expect a weighted decade before thats reestablished so was that is a somewhat different now because a following in the temporary transit nature of some of the job losses i would expect that were likely to be dealing with the consequences of some of the job losses now globally for at least the next decade the new normal isnt it john egan joining us from paris thank you so much do appreciate it thank you. And that is where well leave things this week but i do want to hear from you your thoughts on this weeks show or future episodes on that kemal a j e tweet or d. M. Me and to use the hash tag a j c t c when you do that you can go old school if you want drop us an email counting the cost of aljazeera dot net is the address and theres more online at aljazeera dot com slash c. T. C. Takes a straight to our home page in the shows section there you can watch individual sports and entire episodes anytime you want but that is it for this edition of counting the cost im come on santa maria from the whole team thanks for joining us the news on aljazeera is now. The brazilian journalist investigating a politically stacks and land grab all the farmers helped yet also not elected and hes repay them thats empowering everyday people to profit from the destruction of the rain forest people are almost willing to give their life away to guarantee the occupation knowledge of the lands is journalism the last hope in the fight so steep that on the song the sis not only a land conflict but a conflict a narrative brazil the age of both n. R. O. Whose truth is that anyway on aljazeera. They say to really know someone you must walk a mile in their shoes follow in their footsteps as they forge their way in the water. Aljazeera shares these personal journeys. Inspiring stories of people persevering on their chosen path. Witness documentaries on aljazeera. As protests rage over Police Brutality and coronavirus grips the nation campaigning on the election trail has been forced to take a back seat will the president ial candidates ever hit the road and so very brand of politics to americans before the votes follow the u. S. Elections on a. Donald trump is accused of asking china to help him get reelected in a book by former National Security advisor john paul. And im adrian forgive this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up india and china trying to ease tension after violence on the disputed border in the himalayas. You know black people in america the brother of george floyd makes up