-The Business Standard   Political rhetoric dominated the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) annual executive committee meet today, even as two key faces of Mamata Banerjee’s administration reiterated the government’s stance of not acquiring land for industry. “Under no circumstances will the government acquire land for the industry,” Partha Chatterjee, West Bengal’s commerce and industries minister told the industry body. Also present at the event was state’s finance...

A recent ILO report focusses on the discrimination in employment opportunities and remuneration and wants governments to act. IN recent years, one of the predominant concerns of international organisations, especially those that have a “rights” perspective, has been the impact of the global downturn on various vulnerable sections across the world. Notwithstanding the fact that many countries have signed and ratified conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and are...

Being trained as solar-power engineers enables women from rural India and Africa to introduce electricity in isolated areas Securing the end of her bright yellow and orange sari firmly around her head, Santosh Devi climbs up to the rooftop of her house to clean her solar panels. The shining, mirrored panels, which she installed herself last year, are a striking sight against the simple one-storey homes of her village. No...

-The Economic Times   Over half the country's workforce is self-employed and women receive less pay than men for similar jobs, latest government data shows. While 51% of the country's total workforce are self-employed, only 15.5% are regular wagers or salaried employees and 33.5% casual labourers, according to a survey by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), the key findings of which were released on Friday. The number of people selfemployed...

Its elimination is an international obligation, but there is a long way to go to meet the goal While governments and civil society commemorate the World Day Against Child Labour on June 12, over 20 crore children are still engaged as child labourers. More than half of them face the worst forms of child labour. Though India has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of child labourers, this...