-Business Standard Unaware of govt's proposals, unions tell labour minister Reacting to the Union government’s move to give industries flexibility in hiring contract workers, trade unions on Tuesday charged the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government with violating consultation norms. “This is gross violation of the basic norm of tripartism and the Citu (Centre of Indian Trade Unions) hereby lodges its protest against such violation,” Tapan Sen, general secretary of Citu, said in a...

-Livemint.com Modi would do well to remember Mao’s dictum of ‘walking on two legs’, which envisaged a balance between agriculture and industry According to one of his ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants India to have a China-like dominance in manufacturing. China’s success in manufacturing holds several lessons for India but China’s performance in agriculture is no less remarkable. Over the past few decades, rapid agricultural growth has allowed the Chinese...

-The Business Standard Industry cheers, unions label the move veiled entry of a 'hire & fire' regime The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre has proposed to give industries some flexibility in hiring contract workers for project-based jobs or short-term assignments, a move cheered by industry but slammed by trade unions as an entry of 'hire and fire' through the back door. The proposal, originally mooted by the previous NDA government...

-The Times of India Blog Chouhan and other state leaders must not ban this super-food for growing children from midday meals Many Indian states have started providing eggs with midday meals, either in schools or in anganwadis or both. This is the best thing that has happened for a long time in the field of social policy. Indian children are among the most undernourished in the world. They are starved of protein, vitamins,...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Successive Indian governments have ignored repeated alerts and done little to introduce laws to curb practices that could explain how lead could slip into noodles and other raw and processed food, analysts say. India introduced unleaded petrol in March 2000 but the governments since then have not moved enough to impose mandatory limits for lead in paints which remain a key source of environmental lead pollution in the...