-Livemint.com Change of definition behind fall rather than plan for bettering lot of poor farmers, improving agricultural economy New Delhi: Between 2013 and 2014, the number of farmer suicides halved. That’s what the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) which tracks farmer suicides would have us believe. It isn’t an improvement in India’s agricultural economy or a programme aimed at bettering the lot of poor farmers that has achieved this. Instead, it is a...

-Business Standard Factories with up to 300 workers can fire without government approval After failing to get the Centre’s approval to the ordinance route, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday passed a single Bill to amend eight major Labour laws; seven other laws would be changed through compounding provisions, etc. With this, Madhya Pradesh became the third state in a year, after Rajasthan and Gujarat, to pass its own Labour law amendments...

-The Financial Express The Modi government’s ambitious Labour reform agenda may take a while to be implemented as the 46th Indian Labour Conference (ILC) that concluded in New Delhi on Tuesday could not reach a consensus on many contentious proposals and resolved to hold tripartite consultations. The Modi government’s ambitious Labour reform agenda may take a while to be implemented as the 46th Indian Labour Conference (ILC) that concluded in New Delhi...

-Business Standard No consensus as yet on social security code  Even though the Indian Labour Conference (ILC) could not build a consensus on forming a Labour code on social security schemes, it recommended a slew of measures to broaden their coverage. The two-day conference, a tri-partite platform of trade unions, industry and the government, concluded here on Tuesday with a series of recommendations. It recommended that Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) coverage be expanded...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi began work with unions and employers today to build support for the biggest shake-up of Labour laws in decades, in an attempt to revive a reform agenda that has suffered setbacks ahead of the Parliament session. It is a change of tack for Modi, who is smarting from widespread opposition to land purchase rules he has so far failed, to push through Parliament following...