Kalinganagar/Gobindpur: Tata Steel and Posco conceived their high-profile projects in Orissa at around the same time— 2004-05. Both faced similar opposition from land owners and saw long delays in meeting schedules. Tata Steel’s plant is under way with a commissioning deadline of October 2013, while Posco is still stuck at the land-acquisition stage. Nobody really knows when construction will start. In the land-acquisition process—the biggest stumbling block for most new plants—Tata Steel...

New rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, who declared his intent to focus on Naxal-hit areas on the day he took charge, is set to visit these. Ramesh, who his ministry officials describe as a man in a hurry, is setting off to Raipur, Jagdalpur and a few more places in Chhattisgarh. The visit is likely this week, sources said. At the signing of a loan agreement today with the World Bank...

-The Indian Express   Aimed at reducing maternal and child mortality, the Janani Suraksha Yojana is a scheme unflinching in its ambition and creativeness. Launched more than five years ago, it supplements incentives like free transport with conditional cash transfer to encourage “institutional delivery”. In the years since, the data has been encouraging, but regional variations are evident — as are, unfortunately, indications that the poorest women may not necessarily be...

The results of the latest NSSO large survey on employment and unemployment provide crucial evidence on the pattern of inadequate job creation in this phase of high economic growth. This edition of MacroScan provides an initial analysis of the results. No sooner were the results of the 66th Round of the National Sample Survey Organisation (relating to data collected in 2009-10) released, than they became the subject of great controversy. Surprisingly,...

Casual work, self-employment still rule Q&A Why are fewer women working? Education schemes and higher wages of men are keeping them home for longer. Why is casual work growing? The biggest employment scheme, NREGA, employs casual workers. Why is self-employment down? The least-paying jobs in the self-employment sector are worse than NREGA entitlements. *** The latest official figures on employment say this: a typical Indian worker is male, starts working in his mid-20s, is presumably better educated than...