-FirstPost.com Latur: At first glance, Latur looks like any other Indian town with its dusty congested streets and crowded bazaars. But looks can be deceptive. The town is the epicentre of a process of deindustrialisation and economic deprivation that has spread across the whole district. Reason: The worst drought in the last 45 years has led to acute water scarcity. Marathwada, which has received deficient rains for the last three years, is...

-The Indian Express Jhargram: Even as people return, a steady out-migration, especially of agricultural labour and farmers, continues from the region that has seen poor rain for years now. Taralata Mahato (25) draws awed whispers from women of Jhambeda village in West Midnapore’s Jhargram block as the only one from the village in the police. Taralata lives in a pucca two-storey house with whitewashed walls and a huge cowshed — a palatial home...

-The Hindu Business Line With various data sources at its disposal, the MoSPI is best suited for the task, say officials New Delhi: The task of establishing accurate benchmarks for defining ‘poverty line’ is likely to go to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation if the current thinking among the members of Niti Aayog task force on ‘Eliminating Poverty’ is anything to go by. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI)...

-The Hindu Of the 3.6 crore contract workers about 32 % are employed by contractors in the public sector. The Labour Ministry has proposed a minimum monthly income of Rs.10,000 for contract workers, evoking strong reactions from the industry. The move will drastically increase the minimum wages of contract labourers from around Rs.6,000 per month that is paid to them in a few sectors at present. According to the plan the employers will...

-The Indian Express There is a mounting employment crisis in India. The current growth model, built on large private investments, cannot address the problem. Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan raised many hackles with his demand for affirmative action or job reservations for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates in the private sector. He suggested that “providing quota in private Jobs will help cool down anger among SC and STs”, thereby stemming...