-The Hindu   While migrant labourers see price rise as their primary concern, they still rate caste and religion as determining factors in their voting decision After the rural poor, farmers and the urban middle class, political parties are now seeking to make a vote bank out of migrant manufacturing labourers. The Bharatiya Janata Party's election manifesto promises the concept of "Industry Family" between workers and factory owners, but does not elaborate on...

-Live Mint   Out-of-pocket payments for health are highest among all WHO regions and one-third of new annual poverty is healthcare related New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) will seek to provide access to health services for all in Southeast Asia and put in place robust healthcare systems in the region, the agency's regional director Poonam Khetrapal Singh said in a speech at a conference on Wednesday in Paro, Bhutan. Public health experts,...

-Live Mint     As a democracy matures, citizens become more willing to trust elected representatives to plan and take steps for the long-term growth and development One common complaint during this election has been that the election commission (EC) has to be consulted before the government and its regulatory agencies take any routine decision. Decisions relating to gas price hikes and bank licences all had to be cleared by the EC, whose over...

-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: A survey carried out in January last year by the Indian NGO SAVE reveals that young, unmarried women working in the garment manufacturing units of Tamil Nadu are tied to their employers in a system of bonded labour. Tamil Nadu is the largest cotton yarn producing state in India, home to about 1,574 of India's spinning mills. There are an estimated 2,24,000 women workers in...

-The Business Standard     Institutions such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are considered the panacea of all ills that developing countries like India face. Although the amount of money these institutions lend is small, their influence on the economy is high. They continue to be the benchmark for social and environmental policies, good governance, climate change, corruption and so on. A look at some of the reports of these...