Hundreds of infants in Kenya received their first shots against pneumococcal disease today at a special United Nations-backed event to celebrate the global roll-out of vaccines targeting the world’s leading cause of child deaths – pneumonia. President Mwai Kibaki joined parents, health workers, ambassadors and donors in Nairobi to witness children being immunised as part of the Government’s formal introduction of pneumococcal vaccine in its routine immunisation programme for all children. Kenya...

The incarceration of Binayak Sen reminded me of the sophist philosopher Thrasymachus's definition of justice in Plato's Republic. Challenged by Socrates to define justice he says: "I proclaim that might is right, and justice is in the interest of the stronger...The different forms of government make laws, democratic, aristocratic, or autocratic, with a view to their respective interests; and these laws, so made by them to serve their interests, they...

The ministry of labour of the Emirates will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian government soon to safeguard the rights of Indian workers in the UAE. Indian ambassador to the UAE M K Lokesh told TOI over phone from Abu Dhabi on Wednesday: "We are awaiting a formal date of approval from the UAE side and it should happen soon." Union minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi, who...

Even though the Central Government agreed to link the wages paid under MG-NREGA to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPIAL), it shied away from paying statutory minimum wages in various states of India. Their logic for this: Lack of clarity on who will bear the extra financial burden—the Centre or the states? A letter from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to UPA and NAC Chairperson Sonia Gandhi dated 31...

Farmers would be considered as skilled workers and insurance companies cannot reduce the compensation under the Motor Vehicle (MV) Act on the ground their work required no formal education, a Delhi court has said. "It (farming) is rather the skill and the knowledge of the ancestors which is handed down from one generation to another. Though each farmer of this country may not be educationally qualified as yet and it may...