Election trail has been forced to take a backseat will the president ial candidates ever hit the road and so their brand of politics to americans before the fall follow the u. S. Election on a. 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 whose 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 shock 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 of that to come on this weeks show but we are starting in india where Prime MinisterNarendra Modi stunned many last year with his expansive election victory a victory and a mandate which he has really used 1st that was a populist hindu nationalist program then taking a firm grip on kashmir rolling out that divisive citizenship role 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 overnights 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. Reports from new delhi. 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 means he no longer needs the governments permission to fire in this difficult time. This is what was 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 changes were. Fired from the womans with factory hes worked in for 4 years. 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 dispersed more then when. I go forward to going to look. At the country i met this. Person i am going to. Ever live in most of. The biggest changes have been in states ruled by promised in the day the modis part of the. Critics say the governments using the economic slump to push through. Thats the plan since 1st being 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 lockdown and this urging promise to modi to send a clear message to states to homes 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 believe its important to stress that where were seeing these are farms across the states of the privileged that depend 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 clothing looking to be assured that they are steady conditions in the long haul so i think its important that these changes that are got to leave the laws im not seen as an end all in themselves but they should be viewed as stop gap measures and this time created if that is all even if not a time frame if its really baksh and sought to be you must feel much more concise to just issues and a much more concrete Decision Making process and i think i believe its very important. To 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 end them in nation the blanket and emission of the laws of course comes with a lot of risk in terms of the protection. Rejection what many of you about the stimulus than how 266000000000. 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 like sun 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 deal 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 citing the government possibly is not letting go of all its monetary and fiscal stimulus ammunition in one bowl and it is obscene nobody knows how the engines he is going to look like in the next couple of months you could 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 so 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 chance for us to the poor no wage subsidies to profits just sort of tight or now but again there are other important things to consider in the sense that india is fiscal head especially in times of treating downgrade so in a bit of a trip that is condition but you could see some of these measures the im drooling over. The next couple of months what weve seen so far is just sort of just cheap business running and to tighten up now as we speak the lock downs are being 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 jan they expect to see so jan you did too much of 2020 that Indian Economy grew at a quarterly of each of 3 point one percent which was a 44 year old little and in that january to march it essentially captured just one week of 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 for the fiscal year that that in the right 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 couple its of course political lot of time to get for businesses to get action on the Consumer Sentiment to start to be eaten by for that confidence and that meant to be restored and a lot of industries are going to take oh im. Sure cupboard and the others and. Quickly on strengthen your point on what is important to restoring your role. I believe that the restoration of the confidence factor amongst consumers is very important for that demand side it private and this is of course tied to the containment of the virus itself to a large extent and 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 least 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 the 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 then well see how how trump going to respond to all of these threats but theres this constant if. You draw the independence from hong kong. A special autonomous region of china its because im going to say you are special but miss the region wants to revoke that. Thank you and that depends on what chile china means by the special security act it is going to impose on hong kong so its premature to to make now quite clear. Outcomes of what will be the the fact however people are prepared in this community yes made statements are tycoons and billionaires are made statements in general supporting supporting the the proposed law because it will give them stability and then also on the hearing you have no choice well lets look at some of the anecdotal evidence that youve got to u. K. Banks his base in 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 that 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 play center of chinese hot money so china prefers that they have hong kong in reach all. The minute 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 center so there so it is the same thing in all they want to be our cities because there is no replacement shanghai and not the cannot be replaced but this is what i wanted to ask you to have your Financial Center has china has china taken any steps to make Mainland China look more attractive for International Banks and bottle 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 practiced its 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 whatever trunk it will be it will fall in generally in the reading of these 4 areas one east irish one is the use of dollars. As the currency for transactions and trade so are just the restrictions on on the soft power absolute that knowledge of Science Education and all of that and the 4th is sanctions on china all seashells for example restrictions on travel. On identified us people specific personalities that trump will 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 i mean if i think it will be difficult because its. Really on seeders hong kong no more autonomy in the open was in in terms of trade then 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 exporting onion ring so out sorry not country terrified of 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 hong kong u. S. Dollar. Chinas foreign reserves 45 percent of that is the nominated in u. S. Dollars so therefore china in fact backs 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 last so this will be before trump will begin to be the soft power really score some ethnic type of effect the empire rest 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