Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday announced a judicial probe into the Adarsh cooperative housing scandal, saying in the assembly that a retired Supreme Court or high court judge and a former chief secretary would comprise the two-member panel. Somewhat predictably, the opposition parties described Chavan's announcement as unsatisfactory and rushed into the well of the House shouting slogans against the government, accusing the Congress-NCP alliance of shielding the scam...

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday stayed Environment Ministry's direction to Lavasa Corporation to stop Construction. However, Lavasa Corporation voluntarily agreed not to carry out any work till December 14. On November 25, MOEF issued a show-cause notice to Lavasa, demanding an explanation as to why it did not obtain clearances as per rules under Environment Protection Act, amended by notifications in 1994 and 2004. MOEF also asked the corporation,...

he recent findings by the Labour Bureau's Employment and Unemployment Survey (2009-10) provide timely pointers to the manner in which liberalising India's workforce is coping with the changing times. The survey gives a snapshot of the country's employment and demographic situation. The estimated unemployment rate — in the region of 9.4 per cent (barring the five north-eastern States and the islands of Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar, where the survey...

Ratan Tata has initiated an interesting debate on the nature of India’s capitalist class. His characterization of this class as crony capitalists may not be out of place given recent evidence on a politics, media, judiciary and corporate nexus.Crony capitalism is a system in which businesses multiply their wealth not by fair rules of the market, but through their nexus with governments. Classic examples are the distribution of legal permits,...

The Labour Bureau recently released its first report on employment in the country. Till now, job estimates have usually been available in the employment-unemployment surveys of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). The most recent of these is the 64th round (2007-08), preliminary results of which were reported in this column on 20 July. The 64th round estimates were disappointing, with annual employment growth during 2004-05 and 2007-08 at 0.8...