-The Hindu The recent PLFS data, which show a historic decline in manufacturing employment, make one fact plain — India desperately needs a comprehensive industrial policy, absent since 1991 The Union Budget suggests that the government has not recognised the need to create more manufacturing jobs. For the first time ever, manufacturing jobs fell in absolute terms between 2011-12 and 2017-18, to quote the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of the National...

-Scroll.in The court asked the Reserve Bank of India why it felt the need to constantly change the sizes and features of currency notes and coins. The Bombay High Court on Thursday said the government’s demonetisation exercise showed that it was a myth that fake currency was in circulation. While hearing hearing a public interest litigation seeking to make currency notes and coins easily identifiable for vision-impaired people, the court asked the Reserve...

-Hindustan Times Across various education levels, men are more likely to migrate for work than women, according to the data, although there has been some improvement. New Delhi: There are enough anecdotal accounts of women not being allowed to (or not wanting to) move to other towns and cities to take up jobs. Data on migration from the 2011 census that’s just been released bears these out. Across various education levels, men...

-The Hindu When data is monetised, as the Economic Survey advocates, it becomes toxic and harms public interest Last year, I was denied information requested under the Right to Information Act (RTI) 2005. I had sought the names of agencies empanelled by the Unique Identification Authority of India for an “image makeover” and the expenditure on it. It was denied by invoking the exemption clauses of Sections 8(d) and 8(j), respectively, i.e....

-The Times of India blog Last week, NDA government succeeded in getting contentious amendments to RTI Act passed by Parliament. Social activist Aruna Roy, who was at the forefront of the movement to persuade Parliament to enact the original law, speaks to Anindo Dey about the development: * The government said the RTI Act amendments set right the anomaly of the Information Commissions, which are statutory bodies, being treated on a par...