The World of Work 2012 report presents a bleak picture of the global job situation. FOUR years after the global crisis erupted in 2008, organisations such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) believe that labour markets still have not fully recovered. The world economy is not expected to grow at a sufficient pace over the next couple of years to overcome the crisis. These organisations present some depressing facts: those...

Delhi high court to hear central bank challenge to CIC order seeking information on defaults by top industrialists The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has challenged an order by the Central Information Commission (CIC) asking the central bank to disclose names of the top 100 industrialists who have defaulted on loan repayments. In a writ petition to the Delhi high court, which is scheduled to be heard on 29 May, the central...

Forty-eight thousand farmers, members of twelve hundred co-operative credit societies in Kolhapur district, are up in arms against the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) which has asked the Kolhapur district central co-operative bank (KDCC) to recover loans that have already been waived under the union government’s loan waiver scheme four years ago. In a rally held on Saturday, the farmers decided to resort to a massive agitation against...

-The Hindustan Times From a crackdown on dubious charity contributions to encouraging the use of credit and debit cards, from tracking realty deals to monitoring jewellery purchases, the government has proposed a wide range of measures to combat black money. The proposals are part of the white paper on black money tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. The white paper does not, however, disclose names...

A rural Indian spending Rs. 22.50 a day would not be considered poor by a Planning Commission whose Deputy Chairman's foreign trips between May and October last year cost a daily average of Rs. 2.02 lakh Pranab Mukherjee's stirring call for austerity tugs at the national tear ducts. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has pleaded for it in the past and watched his flock embrace it creatively. With the Finance Ministry even...