-The Indian Express A blanket suspension of labour laws, as has been in the case of UP, however, may not find favour, with the Centre leaning towards putting caveats in order to protect the rights of bonded labour, children and women. With at least 10 states moving to amend their labour laws ahead of restarting economic activities post the COVID-19 lockdown, an overhaul in the central labour laws is being seen in...

-Newsclick.in Additional funds for MSMEs and MGNREGA are going to create enough jobs, but the economy will remain in doldrums. There has been much mutual patting on the back and self-congratulation, after the Narendra Modi government announced two policy measures that could have a direct impact on job creation. These were: a special credit line of Rs.3 lakh crore for MSMEs (medium, small and micro enterprises) and an additional allocation of Rs.40,000...

-The Hindu Lockdown slump may erase 20-30 lakh jobs, says expert Around 20-30 lakh workers, mostly contractual, could lose jobs in the Gurugram-Manesar-Bawal automobile belt due to slump in demand in the wake of COVID-19-induced lockdown, said Harbhajan Singh, chairman of Ease of Doing Business, CII, Haryana. Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Singh, also former director of Honda two-wheelers, said that the Gurugram-Manesar-Bawal automobile belt, which employs around six million workers and is...

-The Hindu The projects, including mining and a highway, were brought up during virtual conferences; but site inspections are ‘a crucial component’ of project evaluation, say scientists Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh has a decidedly other-worldly feel. “Yeh kaunsi duniya hai,” my colleague exclaimed as we climbed the towering mountains — home to the endemic goat-antelope Mishmi takin, the ‘bright-eyed’ butterfly Callerebia dibangensis, and the Mishmi wren-babbler. I had read about the...

A recent survey conducted by National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) -- a Delhi-based non-profit organisation -- shows how persons with disabilities in the country were disproportionately affected by the COVID–19 crisis. The report by NCPEDP has observed that persons with disabilities, particularly those from economically deprived sections, went through severe hardship during the lockdown. Without sufficient access to food or money, many of them faced hunger...