-National Human Rights Commission The National Human Rights Commission organized a day-long National Conference on 'Right to Food' in New Delhi today. Addressing it, Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chairperson, NHRC said that the Commission has always been concerned with the issue. Due to it's intervention, there is a lot of improvement now in Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput (KBK) Districts of Odisha which reported starvations deaths. The NHRC Chairperson said that there is...

-PTI The retail sector, where the government permitted foreign direct investment in multi-brand, courted controversies during the year with several opposition parties making it a political issue in Parliament. Even before its entry into multi-brand retail, the global chain Wal-Mart was grappling with various issues, including spending money in the US on lobbying for entry into India. Adding action to the drama was Swedish furniture chain IKEA's hectic bargaining with the government over...

-The Economic Times There is no need to get scared about losing internet freedom, at least till January 2015. That's the view of top telecom policy watchers, who closely monitored the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that ended in uncertainty earlier this month in Dubai. Policy experts say the changes affecting internet users in India, if any, would be slow and minor with little or...

-The Hindu To address the rights issue and the skewed sex ratio, girl child-friendly policies get an extra thrust in the 12 Plan document, to be approved formally by this month-end The 12 Plan document of the Planning Commission, to be formally approved this month-end, has recommended setting up of a high level inter-ministerial committee on ‘Care and Protection of the Girl Child’ which will constitute the institutional mechanism for mobilising and...

-The Indian Express Increasing provident fund contributions within a faulty system is not the answer The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is moving towards increasing the mandatory contributions made towards an individual’s provident fund (PF). Contributions to the PF are 24 per cent of basic wages. Earlier, employers would exclude allowances such as the housing allowance (HRA) to make the basic wage look smaller, and pay lower amounts. If the EPFO has...