-TheWire.in Cooperatives are useful for political parties in two ways – they are a font of funds as well as handy for dispensing patronage.  A day before the reshuffle, Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance government created a new Ministry of Cooperation. It would provide, said its statement, a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in India. A day later, it announced Union home minister Amit Shah would also head...

-The Hindu Business Line Trade union seeks urgent measures to alleviate pain of joblessness, drastic fall in income Trade unions and industrial associations painted a grim picture of the unemployment scenario in the country at a recent meeting of the Labour Standing Committee. The trade unions demanded urgent measures such as direct cash transfers to address job loss and wage loss, while the representatives of industries demanded a re-look at the current...

-The Hindu Fresh investments dip by 18% overall The second wave of COVID-19 and a steep decline in new investment projects from government agencies dented fresh investment plans in the Economy by 18% in the first quarter of 2021-22, compared to the previous quarter. Despite the government’s stated push for capital spending to revive the Economy, public infrastructure investments almost halved compared to the January-March quarter, bringing total outlays on new infrastructure plans...

-The Hindu Business Line Maharashtra farmers seek concret exim policy Pune: The US and Japan have dragged India to the World Trade Organization over the frequent ban it imposes on onion exports. Both countries have alleged that the export ban without prior notice create problems for importing countries. This, in turn, has resulted in Maharashtra onion growers demanding that the Centre draft a comprehensive policy on the import and export of onion, instead...

-The Hindu Blaming ‘the system’ alone for Father Stan Swamy’s death obscures how India’s political Economy is linked to deprival When an officer from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) came to interrogate Father Stan Swamy last monsoon, the Jesuit sociologist, then 83, in turn asked him about police integrity, and why a father-son duo (P. Jayaraj and Bennicks) should die of custodial torture in a Tamil Nadu police lock-up. It was quintessential...