-The Hindu Business Line Its bold labour reforms are a trendsetter, lending impetus to the ‘Make in India' initiative With ‘Make in India' taking centrestage in India's plan to position itself on a high growth track, far-reaching reforms in the labour, tax and land laws hold the key to the government's ambitions. The abundance of workers is undoubtedly India's biggest asset for its emergence as a preferred manufacturing destination. While the Centre has initiated...

-Economic and Political Weekly The key to improving the quality of healthcare services in India and reducing costs at the same time can be found by enacting legislation which lays down minimum standards of patient care. In the absence of such standards and the reluctance of health insurance companies to standardise either price or quality, healthcare services continue to be expensive and of doubtful quality. Developing standards of patient care by...

-The Indian Express Although the prevalence of sexual violence in India is the lowest in the world (8.5 per cent in 2013), it affects 27.5 million women in the country. Rapes reported to the police as sexual violence surged from 39 per day to 93 per day in 2013. In Uttar Pradesh alone, five rapes occurred in 36 hours. Even these are underestimations, for two reasons. One is the exclusion of...

-The New Indian Express Since the merger of Telangana with Andhra state, irrigation under tanks in Telangana declined from 13,11,054 acres in 1956 to 3,89,591 acres in 2012-13. This is a decline of 9,21,463 acres or 70 per cent!! As a result, Telangana has lost production, income and employment potential of this vast acreage which could have also recharged groundwater (both from standing water in the irrigated areas as well as...

-The Indian Express The lynching of a tea estate owner in Jalpaiguri last month has stirred up trouble in the already edgy tea gardens of north Bengal, where lockouts, labour unrest and poverty form a volatile mix. It's all quiet at Labour Lines, the workers' quarters of Sonali Tea Estate in Jalpaiguri. It has just been two days since Rajesh Jhunjhunwala, the 45-year-old owner of the tea gardens, was lynched by a...