The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has decided to stick to its recommendations on the Food Security Act which have been turned down by a committee headed by PM's chief economic adviser C Rangarajan. The NAC has released the version of the Bill it has drafted to explain that its recommendations on the size of population to be covered by the Food Security Act were feasible. The Rangarajan committee has cited food...

With admission season underway, the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to give early hearing to petitions challenging the validity of the provision of Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act which mandated 25 percent of reserved seats for economically backward sections in private unaided schools. A Bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia agreed to give hearing on a bunch of petitions on a priority basis after taking note of...

Even though the Central Government agreed to link the wages paid under MG-NREGA to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPIAL), it shied away from paying statutory minimum wages in various states of India. Their logic for this: Lack of clarity on who will bear the extra financial burden—the Centre or the states? A letter from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to UPA and NAC Chairperson Sonia Gandhi dated 31...

In a consultation on minimum wages organized by the Bandhua Mukti Morcha in collaboration with the Planning Commission and NMML in New Delhi on Tuesday and Wednesday , there was overwhelming consensus on the sanctity of Minimum Wages.   Speakers included Justice Shah, Aruna Roy, Harsh Mander, Sitaram Yechury, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Harish Rawat, Jayati Ghosh, B.D. Sharma, D Raja, Swamy Agnivesh, and Prashant Bhushan Justice Shah established that repeated Supreme Court...

The National Advisory Council headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi is unhappy with the poor implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, which was once billed as a landmark initiative of the UPA I for economic empowerment of the tribal people. The NAC now wants the government to change the law to make it more effective and has recommended several amendments, including one to...