-Outlook As part of the ongoing probe into the multi-crore illegal granite Quarrying scam in Madurai, police today raided the film production company of Union Minister M K Alagiri's son, Durai Dayanidhi, an accused in the case. The police team from Madurai searched the premises of Dayanidhi's cinema company here for nearly an hour, sources said without elaborating. Dayanidhi, for whom a special police team was on the lookout, and nine others are...

-The Hindustan Times The labour ministry has proposed a minimum pension of Rs. 1,000 a month for all those who subscribe to the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS). If implemented, the move will benefit nearly 3 million workers engaged in small and medium enterprises with higher retirement benefits. Under the EPS 95 scheme, which has been in operation since 1995, a part of the employees’ provident fund contributions are set aside into...

-The United Nations On the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour, two United Nations independent human rights experts today highlighted that of the 215 million children working throughout the world, more than half are subjected to the worst forms of child labour, including sexual and labour exploitation. “One of the most abhorrent forms of child slavery is found in mining and Quarrying, where children start work from the age of three,”...

-The Business Standard Hydropower vs environmentalists in India's hills The green bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court has ordered Jaiprakash Associates Ltd to dismantle the thermal power unit at the company’s cement plant campus in Bagheri, near Solan (Himachal Pradesh), and also pay Rs 100 crore as damages for obtaining environmental clearance in a “dubious” manner. The bench, moreover, turned down the company’s plea that, since the thermal plant was...

-The Times of India A woman tehsildar had a narrow escape from being mowed down by an earth extractor machine in Madhya Pradesh's Dewas district on Tuesday when she tried to stop illegal mining. The incident comes barely a month after an IPS Officer Narendra Kumar was crushed to death by the mining mafia in Morena. Acting on a tip-off on largescale illegal mining in the district, the tehsildar, Meena Pal, rushed...