-The Hindu Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh announces it will not take part in the strike. The Left affiliated central trade unions will go ahead with a nationwide strike on Friday, even as the Centre on Tuesday announced sops in a bid to placate them. The peace offering includes a hike in the minimum wage for unskilled non-agricultural workers in central public sector units from Rs. 246 to Rs. 350 a day and formation of...
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Farm Policy: The political economy of why reforms elude agriculture -Pravesh Sharma
-The Indian Express India should learn from China and start with liberalisation of rural land, labour and capital markets before attempting bigger things. Independence Day has come and gone with its usual mix of celebrations, pride and ruminations on how things could be better. Interestingly, several media commentaries tagged the event with the 25th anniversary of economic reforms, launched in 1991 around the same time of the year. They largely dwelt on the theme...
More »Parties, CIC tug it out over RTI ambit -B Muralidhar Reddy
-The Hindu In a landmark judgment in 2013, the Central Information Commission had ruled that political parties come within the ambit of the Right to Information Act. The tug of war between the six national political parties and the Central Information Commission (CIC) continues as they continue to defy its orders three years after it had declared them as “public authorities” under the Right to Information Act, 2005 making it mandatory for...
More »Decisions of the people, by the people, for the people -Ashish Kothari
-The Hindu People’s objections, from Chhattisgarh to Odisha, against large development projects have brought out the real power of the Forest Rights Act of 2006. Democracy is alive and kicking in India. No, I am not referring to the Assembly elections. It is unfortunate that the term democracy has been reduced to the drama of periodic elections and the subsequent reliance of the electorate on politicians and bureaucrats. When these powerful few...
More »For bargadars, land is now labour lost -Smita Gupta
-The Hindu A systematic attempt is being made in several West Bengal districts to evict sharecroppers from land, despite the legal protection West Medinipur: At Jamirarah village, Srikanta Hansda points to two double-storey houses in the shadow of which his home — a rough mud dwelling with an asbestos clerestory roof — squats: “Those are the homes of the Ghosh family. They own Annapurna Bhandar, a well-known grocery store in Medinipur city...
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