-Press release by Working Peoples' Charter dated 21st September, 2020 Amidst the micro and macro-economic crisis of the last 5 years, the union government has aggressively pushed the agenda of labour law reforms -- purportedly to simplify India’s ‘complex’ labour legislations, improve the business environment, and augment growth and employment. These changes, driven primarily by the business fraternity, have been aimed at improving India’s ranking in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’...

-PTI/ The Indian Express The proposal, which was the bone of contention between the ministry and trade unions, is part of the Industrial Relation Code Bill 2020. Companies having not less than 300 workers will soon be allowed to hire and fire workers without seeking prior government permission, with the labour ministry proposing changes to rules in a bill introduced in Lok Sabha on Saturday. The proposal, which was the bone of contention...

-The Telegraph 32.6% of the 18.1 million jobs in the country were lost in four months India witnessed the erosion of nearly a third of its white-collar jobs between May and August, with professionals like software engineers, teachers, accountants and analysts taking the biggest hit, a survey by a data agency has shown. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy has found that 5.9 million (32.6 per cent) of the 18.1 million white-collar jobs...

-Livemint.com * While 5.9 million white collar workers lost their jobs between May-August 2020, over the previous four months ended 30 April, this job loss number stood at 6.6 million when compared with May-August 2019 * Continued curbs and localized lockdowns have hit economic recovery and employment prospects NEW DELHI: Almost six million white-collar workers, including engineers, physicians, teachers, accountants and analysts, lost their jobs between May and August, the Centre for Monitoring...

-The Telegraph The economic distress caused by unilaterally imposed lockdowns has brought the focus back on the rural job programme Narendra Modi’s cocky statement in Parliament in 2015 about the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act being a monumental failure of the Congress regime may have been a political jibe, but it showed that the government had no intention of boosting a programme which, since its inception, has suffered from the...