SURAT: The country's biggest man-made fibre industry in the city, which contributes to about 40 per cent of the nation's man-made fabric demand, is facing an acute shortage of workers. A huge chunk of skilled workers from states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh employed in the weaving and processing sectors have shifted to their hometowns in the last five years due to National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)...

As a preventive measure to avoid the recurrence of an NRHM-type scam, the government has worked out an IT-enabled near real-time monitoring network system to keep an eye not only on the fund flow from the Centre to the lowest level but also the physical outcome of expenditure on various Central social sector schemes. The new setup, to be rolled out across India in the next five years, is called the...

Progressive strengthening of public facilities is the only way to reach medical services to the population as a whole. “The best form of providing health protection would be to change the economic system which produces ill health, and to liquidate ignorance, poverty and unemployment. The practice of each individual purchasing his own medical care does not work. It is unjust, inefficient, wasteful and completely outmoded ... In our highly geared, modern...

The Economic Intelligence Council will discuss the issue when it meets at the end of this month The government is likely to form a central agency to regulate so-called multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes after the Economic Intelligence Council found they had become a “preferred” mode of fraud. In the wake of an increasing number of economic offences, the United Progressive Alliance government has also decided to set up a multidisciplinary school...

The Budget provides proof of the United Progressive Alliance government having forgotten the importance of its own “flagship schemes”. BUDGET 2012-13 provides conclusive proof that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has lost its way. It has managed the remarkable feat of upsetting almost everyone and making no one happy. The Budget is highly regressive in both taxation and spending terms and will raise prices of essentials, so aam aurat and...