-The Telegraph Trade unions insist that there should only be a binding minimum wage instead of a dual wage rate The draft rules for the implementation of a new wage law have kept the criteria opaque for deciding the floor wage, binding across the country, prompting fear that it will allow the states to pay “distress Wages” to workers. The trade unions are unhappy with the concept of a dual wage rate —...

  Air quality in North India in general and Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR) in particular plunged to its lowest point in recent years during October-November thanks to a variety of factors. Through media reports one comes to know that stubble burning (also called paddy straw burning/ crop residue burning) is chiefly responsible for the public health crisis in India's capital and its nearby regions. Data accessed from the website...

-The New Indian Express Unfortunately, even MGNREGS, which is providing succour to lakhs of poor people, has also been rendered ineffective by the present government, he observed. VIJAYAWADA: Expressing dismay and concern over the delay in the payment of Wages under MGNREGS and clearing the bill submitted for the works done, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu shot off a letter to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy demanding immediate release of funds...

-Financial Express The government’s proposed Unnati scheme, if it works as planned, offers MGNREGA beneficiaries a ticket out of the programme, and, in the long run, out of poverty. It has been clear for a long time that MGNREGA is barely the poverty reduction tool it is often made out to be; at Rs 204 per day per person, the average wage rate across the country is too low to sustain a...

-Scroll.in It provides no guidelines to account for minimum consumption by households, despite Supreme Court rulings on this. Over the past year, the government has taken steps to consolidate India’s complicated patchwork of labour laws into four codes. The Code on Wages, 2019, which received presidential assent on August 8, is the first of the codes to come into effect. This Wages Code has been enacted with the express objective of simplifying...