-The Hindu Business Line   Cocoa has enriched the lifestyle of one lakh farmers in the four southern States When Cadbury India (now Mondelez India Foods Ltd) representatives approached Sabapathy, a coconut farmer at Sethumadai village, 16 km from Pollachi in Tamil Nadu, with some cocoa seedling to be raised as an intercrop in his coconut grove, Sabapathy says he was not interested at all. "They did not give up and I ultimately gave...

-The Hindu The findings from the latest International Labour Organisation report on real wages point to a mix of proactive initiatives and policy paralysis in different contexts. The study notes that continuing deceleration in the growth of global real wages and discriminatory pay gaps based on gender and nationality could sharpen household income inequalities. A most striking finding is that Labour productivity growth outstripped increases in real wage between 1999 and...

-Frontline The Left and other national parties protest against the NDA government's attempts to dilute the MGNREGS by limiting its budget and reducing its reach. IN a rare show of solidarity, representatives of several political parties took issue with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on its controversial proposal to restructure the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The opposition, which was initially confined to the...

-The Pioneer Guwahati: Scared by the protests of the tea garden workers in the State in last one week, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has asked the tea garden management in the State not only to ensure the continuation of ration at subsidised rate but also to make the living condition of the tea garden workers better within next six months time. The Assam Chief Minister held a meeting with the representatives...

-The United Nations Higher education is a prerequisite for millions of youth in the developing world who hope to find a decent, "non-vulnerable" job, a new United Nations study has established. The study, conducted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and released today, surveys 28 countries worldwide and demonstrates that having a high level of education "serves as a fairly dependable guarantee" towards securing a formal job. "The report confirms the role of...