-Live Mint Flexible labour laws in India cannot solve the problem of weak job growth and the poor quality of employment  The theme of the World Bank’s World Development Report this year is, appropriately enough, jobs. The report recognizes that creating jobs is the surest way of reducing inequality and poverty, particularly in the developing world. But the cliché it offers as a solution is disappointing: relax labour laws. The bank has...

-The Business Standard A study has found that the poor households earned a total of Rs 1,545 cr, spent a total of Rs 1,185 cr, and contributed a savings of Rs 360 cr to the city in 2011 Urban poor living in slums of Bangalore contribute 3-3.5 per cent of the City’s economy. About 9-11 per cent of the city’s population that lives in slums contribute between Rs 1,643 crore to Rs...

-The Hindu The Union Cabinet has cleared major amendments in the law relating to Construction workers that would benefit over 88.10 lakh of them. Talking to The Hindu here after the meeting, Union Labour & Welfare Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said the salient features of the amendments include removing the clause that Construction workers should have worked a minimum of 90 days to register with the labour welfare boards set up in various...

-Live Mint All file notings can be made public now except those explicitly exempted  The Union cabinet on Thursday decided to withdraw controversial draft amendments to the Right to Information (RTI) Act that sought to restrict disclosure of government file notings. The move allayed the concerns of rights activists. The draft amendments would have restricted disclosure of file notings only to social and developmental issues. The government had to drop the move following...

-The Economic Times The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), in its performance audit of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), highlighted deficiencies such as less effective regulatory control on medical x-ray units and lack of inspection of few types of radiation sources that have greater hazard potential, among others. These need urgent correction. CAG should not have offered advise on the possible structure and constitution of a regulatory body when...