In a move that brings relief to the rural workforce, but risks creating an inflation spiral, the government on Thursday revised the minimum wages paid for its flagship job guarantee scheme by linking them to the Consumer Price Index for agricultural labour (CPI-AL) for each individual state. Such a price spiral, in case it actually emerges, could roil the electoral prospects of the Congress in the key contests to the state...

A CBI probe has indicted a former chairman of India’s technical education regulator for approving increased student intake by a private engineering college 10 years ago despite the institution lacking adequate infrastructure. The indictment of R. Natarajan comes days after the agency had nailed the now-suspended All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) chairman, R.A. Yadav, in another corruption case. Natarajan was head of the AICTE when the regulator allowed the Chennai-based...

Agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan called on Wednesday for documenting indigenous farming knowledge which coped with monsoon vagaries. In earlier days when there was no irrigation, farmers were prepared for floods and droughts. The climate-resilient farming was a way of life in those days, and people went in for mixed cropping. Dr. Swaminathan said a publication could be brought out on procedures adopted by farmers and how effective they were in coping with...

A new politcal party has been floated by the Adivasi community in Assam with a sole agenda of demanding the scheduled tribe (ST) status for the Adivasis in Assam. Assembly elections in Assam are likely in to be held in the month of April-May along with Kerala, Puduchery, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The new political party christened as Assam Mukti Morcha (AMM) is reportedly backed by the Jarkhand Mukti...

Yet another son-in-law of former Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan has been accused of amassing wealth disproportionate to his declared income in Kerala’s commercial hub of Kochi. Land registration documents show that advocate M.J. Benny, husband of Balakrishnan’s younger daughter K.B. Rani, bought nearly one acre of land under five different title deeds in fast-growing Marad, near the site of a proposed hi-tech city, for a total Rs 81 lakh...