-The Hindu Business Line Its bold Labour reforms are a trendsetter, lending impetus to the ‘Make in India' initiative With ‘Make in India' taking centrestage in India's plan to position itself on a high growth track, far-reaching reforms in the Labour, tax and land laws hold the key to the government's ambitions. The abundance of workers is undoubtedly India's biggest asset for its emergence as a preferred manufacturing destination. While the Centre has initiated...

-The Hindu Business Line Hyderabad: The Union Government has announced Rs 1,900 crore for e-governance project Panch Deep to automate all transactions between the organisations and employees with regard to ESIC (employees state insurance corporation). The government will deploy a massive ERP (Enterprise wide Resource Planning) across the country connecting all the ESIC and other organisations in the ecosystem) Announcing this at a press conference here on Sunday, Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru...

-The Hindustan Times Polpol Path (Jharkhand): Laldeo Asur passes his days basking in the mellow winter sun, his 70-year-old body now too frail for the rigours of village life. But it is not his advancing age he is too concerned about but the advance of modernity on his tribe, the Asurs. Laldeo knows that after him there will be none to practice a traditional technology for iron smelting, a craft perfected by his...

-The Hindu The absence of state accountability is at the core of issues facing tribal communities The Report of the High Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India, under the chairmanship of sociologist Virginius Xaxa, was circulated last week. The 431-page report details the situation of tribal communities: Scheduled Tribes, de-notified tribes and particularly vulnerable tribal communities. Taking on board the findings and demands of social...

-The Hindu It will need a caring partnership between the Dongria Kondh, civil society organisations and the government to figure out how to navigate the very difficult terrain the tribals face Till last week, I'd never visited Niyamgiri, scene of the iconic fight between the Dongria Kondh tribal group and Vedanta, a powerful multinational corporation bent on mining in the area. So why have I titled this ‘revisiting Niyamgiri'? Partly because I've...