-The Hindu The Union Cabinet has cleared major amendments in the law relating to construction workers that would benefit over 88.10 lakh of them. Talking to The Hindu here after the meeting, Union Labour & Welfare Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said the salient features of the amendments include removing the clause that construction workers should have worked a minimum of 90 days to register with the labour welfare boards set up in various...

Warns of contempt action in case of any default The Supreme Court has directed the States of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu and the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep to implement the various schemes formulated for the welfare of the workers without any further delay. A Bench of Chief Justice...

-The Hindu   There is good news for 47.50 lakh domestic workers in the country: they will now be entitled to health insurance cover under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). The extension of the medical insurance scheme, approved by the Union Cabinet here on Thursday, envisages smart card-based cashless health insurance cover of up to Rs. 30,000 annually to below poverty line workers in any empanelled hospital in the country. The RSBY will...

The Aadhaar or UID project has grave implications for every Indian. It will enable the government to profile every citizen and track their movements and transactions. There is no guarantee that intimate personal information -- pre-existing illnesses, romantic relationships etc -- won't be shared with other agencies, warns Praful Bidwai. An elaborate charade has begun with the rolling out of the first Aadhaar unique identity numbers in a tribal district of Maharashtra by...

KEY TRENDS   • In 2017-18, 24.8 percent of rural working-age men and 74.5 percent of rural working-age (viz. 15-59 years) women were not employed. In urban areas, 25.8 percent of working-age men and 80.2 percent of working-age women were not employed AB   • Both the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Consumer Pyramids Survey of the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE-CPDX) report the overall unemployment rate to be around 6 per cent in 2018,...