-The Hindu Business Line The Subramanian panel report on environment regulation should not be accepted in a hurry Environmental governance in India is becoming increasingly contentious. Environmental quality is declining sharply on indicators such as air, water and forest cover. At the same time, there are calls for regulatory flexibility to enable pursuit of a "development agenda". One of the underlying reasons for the failure of environmental regulation has been the adhocism of...

-The Hindu Although urban Indians are slowly showing more openness in their attitudes towards women's attire, this is not the case when it comes to the issue of son preference As one of the world's most socially heterogeneous societies, building solidarity across social groups has been a singular challenge in India. Social bias in India is pervasive across a range of key cleavages - whether caste or class, region or religion. In this...

-The United Nations Private sector services, such as business and administrative services, and real estate, as well as related industries, will employ more than a third of the global workforce over the next five years, according to new data released by the United Nations labour agency. "Service sector employment will remain the most dynamic with respect to job creation in the next five years," said Raymond Torres, a head researcher of...

-Business Standard Working on clubbing all the 44 labour laws into five segments The Centre might take up changes to the Industrial Disputes Act on the lines of what the Rajasthan government recently did, sources said. The Union ministry has started work on clubbing all the 44 labour laws into five segments - industrial relations, wages, social security, working conditions and welfare cess. Sources told Business Standard the views of stakeholders had been taken...

-The Guardian Countries are recognising their obligation to feed their citizens, but with growing corporate control over food systems, the battle is far from over As the first round of intergovernmental negotiations on the sustainable development goals gets under way in New York, I am reminded of the immense struggle over time to ensure that every human being has quality food in sufficient quantity to meet their needs - a right laid...