Principal Advisor to Planning Commission Pronab Sen, who is heading a committee on wages, has said states are bound to pay prevailing minimum wages to workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. His view contradicts the stand taken by the rural development ministry, which had said that NREGA exempts itself from other laws including the Minimum Wages Act and hence the Centre is not obliged to reimburse states according to...

No proposal to revise Minimum Support Price Despite demands from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, there is no proposal with the Centre to revise the Minimum Support Price (MSP) or announce any bonus for wheat, paddy and sugarcane crops. However, it is working towards a system of ensuring remunerative prices under which farmers do not require any concessions in future, according to Union Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad...

Activists associated with framing and implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) have raised alarm against linking of Aadhar, the Unique Identification Number (UID) of an individual, with the job scheme. According to them, the effort would deprive a large number of labourers of job opportunities and may result in complete blockade of the scheme at certain places. A movement spearheaded by development economist and member of...

Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge said the major challenge facing India today was that of the unorganised sector. He was speaking at the second World Social Security Summit organised by the International Social Security Association in Capetown, South Africa, on Friday. Mr. Kharge is heading a six-member high-level delegation from India, which held discussions with several Labour Ministers of the nearly 120 countries participating in the meet. Mr. Kharge...

It costs the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Rs.100 to generate each 'aadhaar' number, which will help address the challenges of inclusion, the authority's chief Nandan Nilekani, said here Thursday. It costs the authority Rs.50 to enrol each individual for the Unique ID (UID) and another Rs.50 on back-end costs, he said. In his address at the annual Rajinder Mathur Memorial Lecture here, Nilekani said that the aadhaar number will help...