-The Hindu “Many States make tall claims.., but these are far from truth” The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has recommended action against government officials responsible for incorrectly reporting the number of manual scavengers in the country, it said in a statement on Monday. At a regional workshop for government and civil society organised by the Commission on December 18 to discuss the challenges of eradicating manual scavenging, “it was strongly felt... that...

-The Hindu The protesting farmers need sincerity and accountability from the Centre, not edification In light of protests against the new farm laws, the Centre has attempted to educate farmers — a form of instrumental reasoning based on exchange of superior information and data — to convince them of the merits of its reform agenda. Since it is presumed that complex matters of economic policy are beyond the intellectual capacities of agrarians,...

-Economic and Political Weekly Every successive reform in labour laws fails to plug the loopholes. The passage of the three labour code bills by Parliament —the Industrial Relations Code (IRC) Bill, 2020, the Code on Social Security (CSS) Bill, 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (OSHWCC) Bill, 2020—and the Code on Wages (CW) Bill enacted in 2019 is the first major milestone in labour market reforms in over...

-TheWire.in In conversation with Avik Saha, co-founder of the Swaraj Abhiyan. New Delhi: As the Lok Sabha passed three controversial agricultural legislations, the country witnessed an outpouring of anger by the opposition parties, who alleged these bills are “anti-farmer”. Farmers and traders have been vehemently opposing the new changes brought in by the Central government, alleging the government wants to discontinue the minimum support price (MSP) regime in the name of reforms. Minister of...

Often exports made by a country to the rest of the world are seen in a positive light by us. It is because exports not only earn precious foreign currencies (that can be used for importing goods and services or simply be used for building forex reserves), it also helps in generating effective demand for goods and services produced in that country and hence, contributes to economic or GDP growth....