The government on Monday said 58 million new job opportunities are likely to be created during the 11th Five year plan (2007-12), thanks to various steps including three stimulus packages since December 2008. Replying to a supplementary during the Question Hour in Lok Sabha, Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said employment is projected to grow at an average rate of 2.73 per cent annually. He informed the House that...

THE sharp criticism of the State administration by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes for perceived inadequacies in enforcing the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and in implementing various welfare measures aimed at empowering Dalits has put the Tamil Nadu government in a tight spot. Despite denials by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who is also a top leader of the United Progressive Alliance which is...

The countries of Asia and the Pacific have not duplicated their economic success in the realm of gender equality, according to a new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report, which found that discrimination and neglect are threatening the very survival of women in the region. “Empowering women is vital for achieving development goals overall and for boosting economic growth and sustainable development,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, who unveiled the...

The Central budget of 2010-11 is a further step in the realisation of a vision of India vibrant with the income, wealth, saving, education and the entrepreneurial energy of the top 5-10 per cent of the population and the rest of Indians, serving that minority and surviving as barely literate, malnourished multitude.  With the accession of Rajiv Gandhi to power, a vision began to germinate. That vision was that of...

The economist and political commentator who was appointed to a four-member team of the UN to recommend reforms to the global financial system critiques Budget 2010 Economist and political commentator Prabhat Patnaik, currently vice-chair of the Kerala Planning Board, is a strong critic of the government’s economic policies. In 2008, Patnaik, who has taught at JNU since the 1970s, was appointed to a four-member team of the UN to recommend...