-The Financial Express Ahmedabad: With production having slowed down to about 50% for most micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) since the demonetisation of R500 and R1,000 notes by the Centre, a spectre of unrest is beginning to haunt labour-intensive sectors such as the textile and chemicals units in Gujarat. “There are two lakh registered MSME units in Gujarat, several of which form ancillary units for the textile industry such as for...

-The Telegraph Ahmedabad: Samir Shah never had such spare time in his life as an oil mill owner. This is, after all, the peak season when mills buy oil seeds that are available after the harvesting of kharif crops. But the Saurashtra businessman has been sitting idle the past fortnight. There's no cash to do business. The demonetisation drive has left entrepreneurs like him with a shrunken wallet. And farmers don't usually accept...

-The Hindu Industry had opposed the move as it may hurt small factories financially New Delhi: The centre is reconsidering a plan to widen the social security net for workers by bringing more factories under the provident fund coverage. The Cabinet Secretariat has pointed out a few contradictions in the Labour Ministry’s proposal to amend the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act of 1952, senior labour ministry officials said. The Labour Ministry had...

-The Indian Express Decentralised industrialisation, entrepreneurship from below have been absent in states that have seen recent unrest among agrarian communities. “The soil here is very saline with electrical conductivity value of 9. We can grow only chloride-loving crops like coconut and the MR-2 variety of mulberry.” That was Tamil Selvi, recently telling this correspondent about the 5.75-acre land farmed by her father Natarajan Gounder at Velayuthagoundanpudur, a small village around 25...

-The Hindu The government must target labour market rigidities to maximise gainful employment in the textile sector. India’s textile and apparel industry is all set for an overhaul as the new National Textile Policy will soon be placed before the Cabinet for approval. The government has already accepted a Rs.60 billion special package for this sector with an aim to create 10 million new jobs in the next three years, attract investments...