-Newsclick.in This bounty for corporate houses comes at a time when common people are reeling under a slowdown, joblessness is at record levels and incomes are stagnating. Continuing her series of press conferences, that are becoming like a treasure hunt for corporates, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced today that corporate tax rates will be slashed from the current 30% (average) to 25.17% including all cess/surcharge. Actually, if no other concession is availed...

-Financial Express We have been hearing the expression ‘Industry 4.0’ ever since the idea of ‘smart factory’ was unveiled in Hannover in April 2013. Many opine ‘Agriculture 4.0’ akin to 4G of telecom. I believe Agriculture 4.0 is “going back to basics, but with technology as its underpinning” to usher in sustainability, in the wake of climate change and degradation of our agricultural ecosystems. We need to re-look at agriculture with...

Almost one in every five suicides in the world is committed by self-poisoning with pesticide, which mostly occur in rural, agricultural areas of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), states a new publication entitled 'Preventing Suicide: A resource for pesticide registrars and regulators'. Published jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the booklet says that the adoption of green revolution technology...

-The Hindu SC says plea filed by child rights activists Enakshi Ganguly and Shanta Sinha raise “substantial issues and alleged detention of children”. The Supreme Court on Friday assigned the Jammu and Kashmir High Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee to inquire into allegations of illegal detention of children — some as young as 10 — by SECurity forces in Jammu and Kashmir, which is undergoing a period of lockdown following the reading down...

-The Economic Times Labour ministry proposes to hand over reins; dedicated funds for provident fund, pension & insurance schemes to be administered by a Central Board. NEW DELHI: The labour ministry has proposed to hand over control of the over Rs 10 lakh crore corpus of provident fund, pension and insurance schemes under the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to a central body, which will have a central government-appointed chairman. Unlike the...