-The Hindu   They had sought inter alia universal social security cover for both organised and unorganised sectors Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said some of the demands raised by the various central trade unions, for which they organised a nationwide general strike for two days in February, were in advanced stage of consideration of the government. Those demands include universal social security cover for workers in both organised and unorganised sectors and...

-The Times of India BHOPAL: If you go by some of the photographs on smart cards used for making payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Rewa district, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, the late ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh and other well-known people are all labourers, though with different names. Many such cards, carrying pictures of celebrities but having names of locals, have...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The UPA is strenuously denying that this campaign is its earthy version of the NDA's "India Shining" campaign, but few are buying the denials. Launched as a "multi-media" campaign to highlight its achievements in two successive terms at the Center, it has been christened by political observers are UPA's " Bharat Smiling" campaign. The spirit of the campaign, says the publicity material given out by the...

-The Hindustan Times Mansa: In a bizarre reply under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, officials of the zila parishad had asked an RTI applicant, Hardev Singh, a resident of Dhingar village, to collect information from his village sarpanch personally. Besides, the authorities have also violated RTI norms by sending a copy of the application to the village sarpanch, who is supposed to submit the information sought by the applicant to...

-The Hindu   Investment in a scheme that guarantees rural employment with minimum wages should be seen as complementary and not alternative to development activities A recent paper by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has argued that the "push" factors of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) are not as important as the economic growth "pull" factors, for increasing agricultural wages. The paper has received wide media...