-Livemint.com Team of civil servants makes presentation at PMO about plans, briefs top officials of NITI Aayog on strategy New Delhi: Undeterred by opposition from trade unions, the Narendra Modi government appears to have made up its mind to pursue labour reforms to boost manufacturing that could potentially absorb millions of workers in a country that will have the world’s largest workforce within the next 15 years. The labour ministry is understood...

-IPS News GUNTUR, India: Thirty-seven-year-old Kode Sujatha stands in front of a hut with a palm-thatched roof, surrounded by a group of men shouting angrily and jostling one another for a spot at the front of the crowd. Each of the boatmen, who carry sand mined from a nearby river to the shore every day, wants to be paid before the others.   Sujatha stares hard at them, holds up a piece of paper...

Although MGNREGA has been looked upon with suspicion by the Government, industry as well as the landed farming class for various reasons including inefficiency, leakages, corruption, rise in rural wages, cost escalation etc., a new report reveals that the programme reduced poverty among its participants between 2004-05 and 2011-12 by providing employment. The report entitled Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: A Catalyst for Rural Transformation has estimated that...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government has virtually ruled out amending the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) to extend it to the private sector, a move that was recommended by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money to check the circulation of unaccounted wealth in the education and religious institutions. Sources in the government indicated that extending the scope of the anti-corruption law to companies and private individuals could...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi began work with unions and employers today to build support for the biggest shake-up of labour laws in decades, in an attempt to revive a reform agenda that has suffered setbacks ahead of the Parliament session. It is a change of tack for Modi, who is smarting from widespread opposition to land purchase rules he has so far failed, to push through Parliament following...