-The Hindu Business Line The expanded ambit now allows a larger pool of enterprises to get the benefits of the MSME Act and pandemic-induced reforms Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are amongst the strongest drivers of the economy with a vast network of about six crore enterprises, contributing about 45 per cent to manufacturing output, 50 per cent to exports, around 30 per cent to GDP, and creating employment for about...

-The Indian Express Government’s response to migrants’ plight, economic crisis, has been to unilaterally bring changes in labour laws. But industrial prosperity cannot be built on a race to the bottom for workers. Only weeks ago, India, and the entire world, witnessed the spectacle of the country’s employment precarity pour out on its roads and highways — men, women and children, in distress of having lost jobs, income and shelter, with no...

-The Hindu The Code on Wages (yet to be notified) has not succeeded in a consolidation of laws and is a case of tall official claims In the brief monsoon session of Parliament, three new labour codes (The Industrial Relations Code, the Social Security Code and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020) were bulldozed into passing and now await the President’s assent. Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar told the media...

-The Indian Express The Prime Minister’s Office, which manages the fund, has declined to furnish details of contributions received, saying that PM CARES is “not a public authority under the...RTI Act”. IT’S NOT just a wide range of central educational institutions, at least seven public sector banks, seven other leading financial institutions and insurers, and the RBI, have together contributed Rs 204.75 crore from their staff salaries to the Prime Minister’s Citizen...

-Press release by Working Peoples' Charter dated 21st September, 2020 Amidst the micro and macro-economic crisis of the last 5 years, the union government has aggressively pushed the agenda of labour law reforms -- purportedly to simplify India’s ‘complex’ labour legislations, improve the business environment, and augment growth and employment. These changes, driven primarily by the business fraternity, have been aimed at improving India’s ranking in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’...