The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on Friday signalled its intent to deregulate the sugar industry, a move that could potentially stoke a political backlash, especially at a time when states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand—all sugarcane-growing regions—are in the middle of an election campaign. The opposition claimed that not only was it anti-farmer, it also violated the electoral code of conduct prevalent in five states, while sugar stocks of...

Poverty is concentrated in the informal sectors of the Indian economy, with people in these occupations amongst the worst affected from the pernicious Licence Quota Raid Raj. This is illustrated by the sarkari controls that trap the livelihoods of some of our nano entrepreneurs - cycle-rickshaw owners and pullers - in a web of illegality. Cycle-rickshaws are an inexpensive mode of commute in many cities, and do not cause any...

The hunger and malnutrition situation in the country has shown marginal improvement, according to the HUNGaMA report. ONE area that has always bothered policymakers in a growth-obsessed economy is the state of the social sector, in particular figures indicating the numbers of people going hungry or are homeless and children who are out of school, the poor nutritional status of women and children, and the high infant and maternal mortality rates....

-The Economic Times   A government-appointed committee has recommended a complete overhaul of government accounting norms with a view to enforcing transparency and better monitoring of public spending.  In its report submitted to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the C R Sundaramurti Committee has suggested rationalisation and reorganisation of the existing account classification of list of major and minor heads of accounts (LMMHA) of centre and states."  The proposed accounting classification structure will provide a...

-PTI   The International Labour Organisation (ILO) today warned there is an "urgent challenge" to create 600 million jobs over the world in the next decade as one in three workers worldwide are either unemployed or living in poverty.  According to the annual report on global employment by the ILO, the world faces the "urgent challenge" of creating 600 million productive jobs over the next decade in order to generate sustainable growth and...