-The Times of India JAIPUR: Enforcing labour reforms in the unorganised SECtor, the Rajasthan government has fixed minimum wages for domestic help and set limits to their working hours. According to a recent notification by the state's labour department, the rate for an entire day's (defined as eight hours) chores - including cooking, washing, baby sitting and other work - has been fixed at a minimum of Rs 5,642 per month. The...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Only seven out of every 100 hundred teachers in colleges and universities across the country were from the Scheduled Castes last year. Those from the Scheduled Tribes were even worse off, numbering only 2 per cent. The grim statistics - included in a government report released last month -leap to relevance against the backdrop of the suicide of Rohit Vemula, the research scholar in the University of Hyderabad. Suggestions...

-Business Standard Keeps records of deliberations and biosafety data under lock Keeping its agenda, records of discussions and results of safety trials under wraps, the environment ministry’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) is set to decide next week whether it is safe to commercially grow genetically modified mustard. The committee is scheduled to meet on February 5 and could make a final recommendation on what could be India’s first commercially-grown genetically modified...

-The Indian Express Building on the Jan Dhan framework, India should move from price to income support Financial inclusion is an important policy pillar of the Narendra Modi government to ensure inclusive development (sabka saath, sabka vikas). What it means, in brief, is to mainstream financial services for the masses, especially credit at affordable costs from institutional sources. This is not the first time financial inclusion is being given a thrust. Various...

Seldom rural citizens get the chance to meet high-level officials who are responsible for delivery of public services and implement pro-poor schemes. But this was made possible thanks to the Accountability Yatra, which is taking place in Rajasthan since December 2015.   It is indeed a rare opportunity to find a District Education Officer (DEO) being asked directly by a simple villager in a public meeting that in how many school...