-Business Standard Letting states pass their own law could come in conflict with provisions in the land law of 2013 The Union government's proposal for states to have their own land acquisition laws that may pull down any or all the four pillars of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act could run in to an unprecedented legal hurdle. The 2013 law the United Progressive Alliance government had passed hinges on four pillars - consent,...

-Economic and Political Weekly A survey to identify who the poor are and how many are actually poor is necessary if programmes and benefits targeted at the needy are to reach them. The Socio Economic Caste Census, of which partial results have been published, was intended to do this. Yet, even a cursory look at the figures indicates that they call for a willing suspension of disbelief. N C Saxena (naresh.saxena@gmail.com) was...

-Business Standard Factories with up to 300 workers can fire without government approval After failing to get the Centre’s approval to the ordinance route, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday passed a single Bill to amend eight major labour laws; seven other laws would be changed through compounding provisions, etc. With this, Madhya Pradesh became the third state in a year, after Rajasthan and Gujarat, to pass its own labour law amendments...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to work out the contours of the reworked land acquisition bill by next week amid indications that it may be purged of all the politically unpopular provisions. It is learnt that the Modi government may allow states to draft their own acquisition laws with the frame of reference being the central law which would only have "pro-people" measures; a tack aimed at...

-Business Standard No consensus as yet on social security code  Even though the Indian Labour Conference (ILC) could not build a consensus on forming a labour code on social security schemes, it recommended a slew of measures to broaden their coverage. The two-day conference, a tri-partite platform of trade unions, industry and the government, concluded here on Tuesday with a series of recommendations. It recommended that Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) coverage be expanded...