Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Wednesday announced that the scheme for supply of ration rice at Rs.2 a kg would be extended to all cardholders, including APL cardholders, subject to certain conditions. People with high incomes and landholdings would not be eligible. Briefing the media on the Cabinet decisions, the Chief Minister said the Cabinet had approved the recommendations of the Ninth Pay Revision Commission with changes proposed by the Cabinet...

Though wages are not significantly high, West Asia continues to attract the poor looking for a break… In Benyamin's award-winning Malayalam novel   Aadu Jeevitham (A Sheep-like Life), based on a true life story, the protagonist, Najeeb, is held as a slave labourer on a sheep farm in a faraway desert in Saudi Arabia. For three years, he is forced to do back-breaking work, is kept half-hungry and is denied water to...

India may have to abide by a series of international standards and regulatory practices in the healthcare sector, if it agrees to some proposals that are part of the ongoing India–EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations. For instance, EU negotiators have sought India’s commitment to adopting Global Harmonization Task Force (GHTF) norms for medical devices. The move comes at a time when India and other Asian countries are trying to formulate...

ENVIRONMENT MINISTER DISREGARDS FINDINGS OF HIS OWN REVIEW AND STATUTORY CLEARANCES COMMITTEES The following is the statement issued to the press by Abhay Sahoo, President of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), and Prashant Paikeay, the PPSS spokesperson, on January 31, 2010. The decision of Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to give a comprehensive okay to the POSCO India Steel Power Production-Captive Port project, based on some additional conditions, is nothing short of...

Surinder Mahato is a worried man. A small farMer on the outskirts of Bihar's capital Patna, he laboured throughout last year's drought to ensure that his farm's output of rice was not affected. But he now stares in distress at the stacks of paddy lying in his hut. 'I am waiting to sell my crop, but due to the government negligence, I am forced to sell at throwaway prices to local...