A courier company in Mumbai shows the way in providing employment for the hearing impaired. IN the milling crowds of Mumbai, they stand apart with their orange T-shirts printed with the name Mirakle Couriers. Every day, during the busy hours of the working week, one sees them on the sidewalks, in public transport and elsewhere with large black bags slung on their shoulders. It would not be enough to say...

The ministry of labour of the Emirates will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian government soon to safeguard the rights of Indian workers in the UAE. Indian ambassador to the UAE M K Lokesh told TOI over phone from Abu Dhabi on Wednesday: "We are awaiting a formal date of approval from the UAE side and it should happen soon." Union minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi, who...

New CRZ notification sparks off fears, upsets fisherfolk The new Coastal Zone Regulation (CRZ) 2011 which has opened up construction along the sea has sparked off fears of Mumbai being ringed with high rises and mutating into a ‘desi' Manhattan. It has triggered furious debates on development and upset the fisherfolk who are planning to hit the streets across the country to agitate for better coastal protection. Since 1991 when the first...

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a landmark legislation to improve the economic condition of rural mass of India through an assured 100 days of employment per household per year, was initially implemented in West Garo Hill and South Garo Hills districts of Meghalaya in 2006, with much publicity. The scheme emanating from the MGNREGA for providing unskilled manual work for 100 days per household at Rs...

So why is the UPA hell-bent on killing its unique success story: the NREGA? Here's the inside narrative of the conspiracy. It took 47 days of a protest sit-in at Jaipur to make the state budge(1). It's notable that the objective of this protracted protest was not to coerce the Rajasthan government for an extra share of the state's resources, but to hold the government accountable to the Constitution and its...