-Business Standard The Centre proposed a slew of measures for workers ahead of Labour Day. Suggesting flexibility for employers in hiring and firing labour, it also proposed provisions for a better compensation package. Union Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal tells Somesh Jha both workers and employers should be ready for a change demanded by the new dynamism of the economy. Edited excerpts: * How important is rationalisation of trade unions? Unions are formed so...

-Tehelka Agrarian policies are proving to be an albatross around the neck of ordinary farmers Amon Singh Kevat, 70, a small farmer in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, spent three long days in April waiting for his harvest to be picked up from an open plot that served as a mandi (procurement centre for agricultural produce). In need of money for a marriage in the family, Kevat didn’t even go home for meals. But...

-The Indian Express A little more than a week ago, World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which he called an “extraordinary effort” at financial inclusion. According to the Union finance ministry, India has attained 99 per cent financial inclusion, measured as households’ access to bank accounts. Within three months of launching the PMJDY, the government entered the Guinness...

-Business Standard Events after a farmer's suicide at an AAP rally encapsulate the state of public discourse on Indian agriculture The spectacle of political one-upmanship, blame, hyperbole (and even some Filmfare-worthy expressions of grief) triggered by the suicide of Gajendra Singh, a young man from Rajasthan at an Aam Aadmi Party rally in New Delhi, perfectly encapsulates the state of public discourse on Indian agriculture today. The discovery that his may not...

-The Indian Express As the toll of human misery and suicide mounts, official estimates of farm losses due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms in March remain controversial, with hasty downward revision. Since these estimates are largely notional, without validation from field visits, such revision smacks of deliberate fiddling. On March 24, the agriculture ministry reported that crops on 18 million hectares — about 30 per cent of the rabi crops —...