-The Indian Express The decision on compulsory counting of paper trail slips, which was approved by the full Commission before Nasim Zaidi retired as the Chief Election Commissioner on Wednesday, is a response to the demand made by political parties at a meeting held by the EC on May 12. In a bid to further reinforce the credibility of electronic voting machines, the Election Commission (EC) has decided to mandatorily tally...

-TheWire.in The traders have incurred a loss of over Rs 5000 crore in the last 22 days, while 15 lakh labourers have lost their jobs due to the shutdown. Surat: On July 8, Surat, the economic capital of Gujarat, witnessed an unprecedented protest against the new tax regime, the Goods and Service Tax (GST). Texile traders swarmed a three-km stretch on the Ring Road, which holds city’s main textile market, on a...

-Scroll.in Gadchiroli has recognised community forest rights in 66% of eligible land, compared to the state’s figure of 15%. Ten years after the Centre passed a law granting Adivasis and other forest dwellers rights to manage resources in forest lands, Maharashtra has emerged as the front-runner among states in implementing the provisions of this legislation, followed closely by Kerala. A new report by Community Forest Rights Learning and Advocacy – a collective...

-The Hindu Business Line 1.5 times the defence budget may be needed for unproductive animals: Economist Rawal New Delhi: The ban on cow slaughter can pose a serious threat to the Indian economy in the near future, as the country may have to spend 1.5 times its current Defence Budget to take care of an additional 27 crore unproductive animals annually, an agricultural economist has warned. Speaking at a function organised by Bhumi Adhikar Andolan, a...

-The Hindu Business Line Urban-rural wage gap highest in the North-East and northern States New Delhi: That rural employment, particularly in the informal sector, will fetch lower incomes, does not always hold true. In fact, hired workers in the informal sector in rural Gujarat earned twice as much as their counterparts in urban areas, a recent report of the National Sample Survey Organisation show. Hired workers in rural Gujarat’s informal sectors earned about...