-The Hindu Business Line   Labour shortage, wage bill, loss of orders hit industry, says survey Labour shortage, wage increases and loss of confirmed orders are hitting industry hard, says a survey by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce of India (FICCI). If this were not enough, the UPA Government's flagship rural job scheme, MGNREGA, is adding to industry's labour woes by luring away casual workers, it adds. The survey, which found the impact of...

-The Hindustan Times   After poverty line, the government and the civil society may converge on bringing crores of workers enrolled under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) under the minimum wages law. The government had earlier rejected demand by civil society members and Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council of paying wages to MGNREGA workers as per notified minimum wages of states. The reason given was that states could hike minimum...

The Central expenditure on the job guarantee scheme may shoot up with civil society pressure that wages under the MGNREGAshould be governed by the Minimum Wages Act. NAC member Aruna Roy on Saturday urged Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi to implement the Karnataka high court order which has struck down the government order that wages under the scheme could be lower than the minimum wages in the state. The HC order...

-The Indian Express   National Advisory Council (NAC) member Aruna Roy has sought UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s intervention in implementing the Karnataka High Court ruling — that the wages under the NREGS cannot be less than the minimum wages prevailing in the area — across the country. Roy has termed the delinking of the wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme from the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act as a “more...

When activists of the Right to Food campaign attacked Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia over the Rs 32 per capita per day cut-off for poverty line, Vijay Jawandhia — a farm activist from Vidarbha — asked a counter question: “Why are you happy with a minimum wage of Rs 100 per labourer per day under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), when salaries have been revised several...