Supply and demand shock What might drive the rise of shadow entrepreneurship? When there is a supply and demand shock as momentous as COVID-19, a new market may open up to tackle the shifting inwards of markets, owing to rising prices and lower quantities available. Shadow entrepreneurs, offering the allure of technology-mediated services, can help release the associated distortions and frictions in the market by offering complementary services that traditional service providers may be constrained to offer or consumers might not be able to access due to lockdown constraints. This could produce a redistribution of old consumers towards these new markets provided through technology and also entry of new consumers.…

Periwigs, all-weather gloves and the return of the face veil in the US canall be traced to outbreaks and pandemics, from as far back as the 17thcentury to as recently as the 20th. Of the many changes wrought by Covid-19, the first pandemic of the 21st century, the most notable would have to be the mask. It too is being embraced, customised, embellished. PR executive Sami Sayyed, 30, forinstance, has ten face masks and counting. He keeps collecting new ones to suit different occasions. He has masks to complement his Western formals and his traditional formal outfits, masks that go with his casual wear, others that match his gym clothes.…

The Covid-19 pandemic has sharpened the focus on the vulnerabilities faced by many sections of the population, especially women. But among these groups, women living with disabilities there are 11.8 million in Indiaface a particularly challenging situation. Two civil society organisations, Rising Flame and Sightsavers, undertook a study of women with disabilities during the pandemic and found that those with sight and hearing impairments faced serious obstacles to accessing information, education, food and other basic amenities not to mention psychological support. Many with sight disabilities were not able to access the Aarogya Setu app as it does not factor in their requirements. Those with locomotor disabilities were not able to…