-The Telegraph New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel examining the functioning of India's food safety authority has sought an explanation for low conviction rates in cases of adulteration and misbranding of food items and criticised the slow implementation of proposals to upgrade state food-testing laboratories. The Parliamentary standing committee on health has asked the health ministry to determine whether the low conviction rates in cases of misbranded or adultered food are due to...

-IANS New Delhi: The CAG has picked several holes in the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) saying lack of planning and funds management resulted in incomplete works for providing safe drinking water to rural habitations, schools and anganwadis. In its audit report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said only 44 per cent of rural habitations, 85 per cent of schools and anganwadis were provided with...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday raised import duty on several textile products, including garments, scarves and carpets, as part of its plan to protect domestic manufacturers and support the ‘Make in India’ initiative. The tariff hike on 32 product categories comes after recent increases across several sectors, from mobile phone to TV sets and toys. A few weeks ago, the government had increased import duty on some...

-The Hindu There needs to be a road map to rescue private Industrial Training Institutes from their weak state Small shops, basements, tin sheds and godowns. These are not random workplaces but places where private Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) are running in the country. Disturbing facts such as these come from the report of the Standing Committee on Labour (2017-18) headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirit Somaiya, on the “Industrial Training...

-The Times of India In time of a raging debate over jobless growth, nearly 24 lakh posts are lying vacant with the central and state governments, data compiled from answers to various questions in Parliament show. A Rajya Sabha question answered on February 8 shows that the largest chunk is the over 10 lakh vacant positions for teachers in elementary (9 lakh) and secondary schools (1.1 lakh). Apart from the vacancies in the...