-The Hindu They matter because they sustain social practices without which human life is neither worthwhile nor indeed possible There is much talk these days about the decline in our institutions. Aren’t they failing to perform, being systematically undermined, even destroyed? On the one hand, people are heard lamenting that our courts are compromised, that our Parliament is dysfunctional, or that our higher education is in a mess. On the other hand,...

-The Hindu Clause on listing ingredients dropped. A group of Indian pesticide manufacturers says that the proposed Pesticides Management Bill, which is likely to be finalised this month, will harm both farmers and the domestic industry by not making it mandatory for the active ingredients of pesticides to be revealed in the registRATion process. “The draft Bill will allow importers to register readymade products without registering the active ingredients,” said Pradip Dave, President...

-Firstpost.com The labour ministry has put the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) on the back burner as it wants to transition to computing payroll data based on Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) subscriptions, based on data from the Employees State Insurance CorpoRATion (ESIC) and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), according to this report in The Economic Times. Of course, the EPFO-based jobs data gives one a better picture about the...

-The Hindu The court-ordered clean-up in the textile town has managed to mitigate ill-effects of industrial pollution to a large extent. A similar remediation effort, involving the government and stakeholders, is needed in other parts of Tamil Nadu, where groundwater has been so contaminated that farming is not possible anymore On a sunny June morning, two men are spotted fishing close to the ORAThupalayam dam in Erode district. A RATher ordinary act in...

-TheWire.in A pregnant tribal woman recently had to be carried for nearly 8 kms to reach a proper road to get to the hospital, an incident that is all to familiar to the region that is still awaiting basic infrastructure. Atappady (Kerala): Panali, a 35-year-old tribal man in the Edvani area of Nilgiri Hills in Attappady, Kerala, along with his relatives, had to carry his pregnant wife on his shoulder for...