-The Indian Express Niggling procedural hassles stymie efforts to modernise antiquated labour regulations.   As it completes one year in office, the NDA government seems to have finally bit the bullet and taken up the controversial Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, for amendments that would allow easier retrenchment and closure norms for firms with up to 300 workers though ensuring that the employees get higher compensation in return. The draft code on industrial relations has...

-Business Standard According to a proposal by the Union labour ministry, 10 per cent of the employees or 100 workers will be needed at least to form a trade union Barely a week after trade unions across the country celebrate the Labour Day, the National Democratic Alliance government will meet workers' and industry representatives on May 6 to discuss proposals to make forming unions tougher and union activities more rule-bound. The proposals to...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: About half of Delhi would have flattened out had the epicentre of Saturday's morning earthquake been in or near the national capital. DK Paul, professor emeritus at IIT Roorkee's earthquake engineering department and part of the team that carried out a microzonation study of the capital in 2007, told HT that devastation in Delhi would be many times more not only on account of its high seismicity (it...

-The Indian Express Food safety is critical for public health as food-borne diseases affect people's well-being,strain health-care systems, and adversely impact national economies, tourism and trade How often do we ask ourselves if the food we are eating is safe? Do we know if it is free of bacteria, viruses, parasites, chemicals, other contaminates, additives and adulterants which can cause over 200 diseases ranging from diarrhoea to cancer? Every year, diarrhoea caused...

-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...