-Livemint.com * The new scheme is a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's universal social secuity programme * PM Narendra Modi's new pension scheme aims at benefiting over 3 crore traders and shopkeepers The newly-inducted Union Cabinet, in its first meeting, approved a mega pension scheme to provide a minimum assured pension of Rs.3000 per month to all small shopkeepers and retail traders. The new scheme is a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's...

-The Hindu The general election saw serious questions being posed to the Election Commission. The 17th Lok Sabha must deliberate on them The biggest election in the world has finally come to a successful end for which the three Election Commissioners and their 12 million staff deserve appreciation. Unfortunately, what deserved to be remembered as a subject of national pride became mired in several controversies. At the top of the list was...

-The Telegraph Low wages, no Social Security mark ‘non-standard forms of employment’ By 11am last Wednesday, Salim had collected all the household trash littering the lanes in the central Delhi neighbourhood of Regar Pura and dumped it in the local garbage yard. If he were a regular civic employee, his day’s work would be over. But Salim said his “actual work” would only start now: he would be segregating the plastic bags and bottles and liquor...

-Frontline.in The Oxfam India report on employment says jobs remain a huge challenge in India where half of the workforce depends on agriculturefor livelihood. Employment, or the lack of it, has emerged as one of the most contentious issues in the general election this year. Most surveys show that the single biggest concern preoccupying the electorate, especially the youth, is unemployment. The very fact that the government introduced a quota for the...

-Financial Express If ever there was a beautiful word in Indian polity, it shall be none other than ‘poverty’. Existence of poverty, the necessary evil, ensured the Congress and various regional parties win elections after elections through rhetoric, albeit repeatedly but in different forms, and finding a page on their election manifestos. Did any of the ideologically opposite previous dispensations ever knocked the door of the poor man for eliminating the...