‘The least that every worker in field and factory is entitled to is a minimum wage which will enable him to live in modest comfort, and humane hours of labour which do not break his strength or spirit...,’ Jawaharlal Nehru declared stirringly in his presidential address to Congress in Lahore in 1929. Eight decades later, the Union government of free India resolved that it would not pay the minimum wage...

Despite its slackening industry, the common perception of West Bengal as a backward state has little substance when one looks at the facts. Most of us are conditioned to view economic development in terms of industrialisation. While industrialisation is essential for economic transformation, it is not as if economic Growth is not possible without it. The sectoral structure of India's gross domestic product (GDP) and its slow transformation makes a good...

Even though the Central Government agreed to link the wages paid under MG-NREGA to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPIAL), it shied away from paying statutory minimum wages in various states of India. Their logic for this: Lack of clarity on who will bear the extra financial burden—the Centre or the states? A letter from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to UPA and NAC Chairperson Sonia Gandhi dated 31...

In a consultation on minimum wages organized by the Bandhua Mukti Morcha in collaboration with the Planning Commission and NMML in New Delhi on Tuesday and Wednesday , there was overwhelming consensus on the sanctity of Minimum Wages.   Speakers included Justice Shah, Aruna Roy, Harsh Mander, Sitaram Yechury, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Harish Rawat, Jayati Ghosh, B.D. Sharma, D Raja, Swamy Agnivesh, and Prashant Bhushan Justice Shah established that repeated Supreme Court...

The government is seriously considering minority foreign stake in food retail in the wake of the spurt in food prices. “FDI in (food) retail will lead to demand-driven farming and that can result in clusterised high-Growth farming,” food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahay told the The Telegraph. Cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar is believed to have gone even further — reportedly endorsing a proposal of the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP)...