-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today summoned the Union labour secretary to explain states' failure to utilise a staggering Rs 27,000 crore collected as cess for construction workers' welfare and rapped the Centre for its "unfortunate casual attitude" in the matter. A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and U.U. Lalit, which deals with social justice matters, said the labour secretary should appear at the next hearing and submit an...

-DNA The nationwide one day strike according to the trade unions is supposed to be the biggest strike ever in the country. This protest is a strike against the anti-worker economic policies of the government. 10 central trade unions have declared a nation-wide strike on September 2 which is said to impact essential services. This strike is to protest against the changes that have been made in the labour laws by...

-Hindustan Times The cabinet is to take up a law ministry proposal that aims to dispose of in three years cases involving the Centre and also minimise litigation by the government, the country’s biggest litigant. The new litigation policy — the draft of which has been seen by HT — wants the government to be a facilitator of justice and not a blocker by being a “compulsive litigant”. “We want to transform...

-Economic and Political Weekly A survey to identify who the poor are and how many are actually poor is necessary if programmes and benefits targeted at the needy are to reach them. The Socio Economic Caste Census, of which partial results have been published, was intended to do this. Yet, even a cursory look at the figures indicates that they call for a willing susPension of disbelief. N C Saxena (naresh.saxena@gmail.com) was...

-Business Standard No consensus as yet on social security code  Even though the Indian Labour Conference (ILC) could not build a consensus on forming a labour code on social security schemes, it recommended a slew of measures to broaden their coverage. The two-day conference, a tri-partite platform of trade unions, industry and the government, concluded here on Tuesday with a series of recommendations. It recommended that Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) coverage be expanded...