West Bengal Industries Minister Nirupam Sen said here on Thursday that a unique comprehensive rehabilitation package for land-losers has been formulated and will be put in place in areas where industrial units are to come up. At an event where “letters of allotment” and “permissive possession certificates” were handed over to 13 investors for setting up units in south Bengal on a total of 1210.76 acres of land acquired by the...

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said that the country targets to create 50 crore skilled manpower by 2020 to become an economic superpower. "We are focussing at skill development to get demographic dividend from our huge young population. In the next 10 years a 50 crore skilled workforce will be created," he said at the foundation stone laying ceremony of Scholar School in Bagnan here in Howrah district. Two-thirds of...

The two day 43rd Session of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC), the apex national tripartite body that discusses key issues affecting labour and employment and provides policy perspectives and recommendations, concluded in New Delhi today. The Conference was inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Tuesday 23rd November 2010. Senior level representatives of the three pillars of the tripartism, Trade Unions, Employers’ Associations and Government, participated in the deliberations...

A fast growing economy is a thirsty economy and India is no exception—with the country’s water supply already under great strain, India must reassess its consumption to meet escalating demands for water to produce food and energy. Business-as-usual water practices cannot remain the same in India as the economy and its demand for freshwater grows over the coming decades. With an astounding 75% of freshwater already used for agriculture in India,...

It is imperative that the committee constituted to look into charges of corruption in the Commonwealth Games should also include violations of labour laws within its purview. One of the more blatant and visible scams of the recently concluded Commonwealth Games relates to how the thousands of workers who worked on the games construction sites were denied minimum wages, safety equipment, housing and other benefits constitutionally due to them. In an interview...