-The Hindu The chopping off of the palms of two migrant workers is a wake-up call The gruesome incident of the chopping off of the palms of two migrant labourers of Kalahandi district of western Odisha by the labour contractor mafia in December 2013 should serve as a wake-up call. The incident highlights the ruthless extent to which the mafia can go to meet its ends and brings home the fact that...

-Deccan Herald Between 2005 and 2010, 140 lakh people were displaced from agriculture and 57 lakh jobs were lost in the manufacturing sector. With a bountiful monsoon and a record foodgrain production, agriculture is going to be the saviour of the Indian economy in 2013-14. At a time when there is an all around doom and gloom -- industrial output failing to keep pace, manufacturing sector refusing to look up, joblessness growing,...

-Economic and Political Weekly     India is home to the largest number of children, 43 crore, in the world. Their care situation is in a shambles. Although, the new National Policy for Children reaffirms that they are "national Assets", the budgetary outlays are not sufficient to take care of their health, education, protection and development. Manzoor Ali (manzoorali.ali@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, New Delhi. Please click here to download...

-Outlook Batting for bringing flexibility in UPA's flagship NREGA, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today said the scheme has failed to achieve the three objectives of wage employment, creating community Assets and empowering gram panchayats at the same time in any state. Stating that all jobs cannot be provided in areas where the youths want them, he called for encouraging migration across all states and noted with concern the "discrimination" in housing suffered...

-PTI Batting for bringing flexibility in UPA's flagship NREGA, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said the scheme has failed to achieve the three objectives of wage employment, creating community Assets and empowering gram panchayats at the same time in any state. Stating that all jobs cannot be provided in areas where the youths want them, he called for encouraging migration across all states and noted with concern the "discrimination" in housing...