It spreads across five countries including Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa and Bhutan, apart from a total of 34 of the 71 districts in Uttar Pradesh. It involves over 450 Class-I government officials and another 800 middle and lower rung subordinates apart from some 10,000 private entities and may require 5,000 FIRs to cover the scam in totality. The foodgrain scam of Uttar Pradesh has emerged as a strong contender for...
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Panel suggests stringent punishment for torture by Gargi Parsai
The Select Committee on the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 has recommended stringent punishment for acts of torture by a public servant, including life imprisonment and death sentence for death caused by torture in custody.The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in May but was referred to a Rajya Sabha Select Committee following concerns over certain inadequacies in the draft legislation.Chairman of the Select Committee Ashwini Kumar told journalists...
More »The growing jobs challenge
The Labour Bureau recently released its first report on employment in the country. Till now, job estimates have usually been available in the employment-unemployment surveys of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). The most recent of these is the 64th round (2007-08), preliminary results of which were reported in this column on 20 July. The 64th round estimates were disappointing, with annual employment growth during 2004-05 and 2007-08 at 0.8...
More »India will create 58 mn more jobs by 2012: Labour Minister
Labour Minister Harish Rawat says the government is confident of creating 58 million additional jobs by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan in 2012 thanks to the smart recovery in the farm sector and its resultant impact on the rural economy. "Agriculture has responded very positively. With economy poised to grow at NINe percent in this fiscal year, we will be able to meet the target," Rawat told...
More »Rural areas face challenges to eradicate extreme poverty by James Melik
Some 350 million people living in rural areas being lifted out of extreme poverty in the past decade, according to The Rural Poverty Report, published by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a United Nations (UN) agency. However, in spite of this, more than a billion people around the world still continue to suffer. The UN describes extreme poverty as living on less than $1.25 (80p) a day. But factors such as...
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