-The Financial Express Yet another WTO Ministerial Conference has ended with the 164 members of the organisation failing to agree on how to take the agenda of the organisation forward. At the end of the 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11), there should be no doubt that the WTO has lost its way. Trade ministers have failed to deliver a work programme for the WTO for the second time in a row—a first...

-The Hindu It is crucial to align policy across sectors and upgrade the country’s social infrastructure In India’s highly segmented labour market, one can still discern at least three demographic groups that are in urgent need of jobs: a growing number of better educated youth; uneducated agricultural workers who wish to leave agricultural distress behind; and young women, who too are better educated than ever before. India is indeed the fastest growing large economy...

-Hindustan Times India’s economic growth slumped to 5.7% in April-June quarter, which experts attribute to demonetisation that sucked out 86% of the currency in circulation from a largely cash-reliant economy. The government’s expected measures to revive a stuttering economy could mainly target the MSME sector and involve a re-look at public-private project norms to boost investment without breaching its fiscal deficit target for the year, officials involved in the process told HT. Besides,...

-The Indian Express With the scheme floundering, the Centre is now planning to shift focus to district-level schemes to yield better results in the short-term for its skilling initiative. The government’s flagship skilling scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), is struggling to achieve end-results. Data for the PMKVY scheme until the first week of July 2017 reveals that out of a total 30.67 lakh candidates who had been trained or...

-PTI Pune: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's labour arm has asked the Narendra Modi government to take note of the "immediate adverse side effects" of demonetisation while welcoming what it called a "rare" opportunity to help those less privileged. The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh also cautioned the government against pressuring people to go digital. "We take serious note of the immediate adverse side effects like defects in implementation, cash shortage, slowdown in market, job losses,...