Over 300 workers from the Hindustan Insecticides Limited plant Manufacturing Endosulfan near Kochi at Kerala organised a rally today to oppose the unscientific approach adopted by environmental NGOs to seek ban on Endosulfan. The workers demanded that their own experience and the farmers’ experience be taken into consideration as they work with the pesticide Endosulfan. Endosulfan was manufactured and used for more than 50 years across the world and continues to...

In this winter of gloom, doom and corruption, the government can bask in some warmth from data collected by its statistical agencies. (Alas, these agencies have yet to hire some basic data-processing capabilities from minor computer firms, let alone agencies like Infosys. Perhaps Nandan Nilekani can loan some programmers from the UID project.) So what is the issue, and what is the evidence?It was only a few months ago that...

Large scale child labour persists in India, mostly in the agricultural sector and the informal economy despite initiatives by the government and instances of commercial sexual exploitation of minors are oft reported, a US report on the issue said on Wednesday. According to the India section of the annual report of the Department of Labor, children are exploited in the worst forms of child labour with a majority working in agriculture,...

The Assange saga may be as good for the jurisprudence of rape as the whole WikiLeaks issue may be for the strength of free speech and the Internet.Julian Paul Assange's life as a hacker and “rogue journalist” (as he is to some people) had the makings of a classic Hollywood potboiler, initially. Eventually, it appeared to have turned into high drama, with two women alleging rape and molestation, a Swedish...

he recent findings by the Labour Bureau's Employment and Unemployment Survey (2009-10) provide timely pointers to the manner in which liberalising India's workforce is coping with the changing times. The survey gives a snapshot of the country's employment and demographic situation. The estimated unemployment rate — in the region of 9.4 per cent (barring the five north-eastern States and the islands of Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar, where the survey...