-TheWire.in To oppose the forest department’s plan to limit open grazing, the pastoral community is formally pursuing their collective land rights through the Forest Rights Act. The sun has not yet decided to rise. It’s pitch black out but a group of Maldharis has already assembled for the last session of this year’s milking competition. Their massive buffalos are majestically adorned with intricate garlands and colourful necklaces. The panch (group of five...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Participating as a volunteer in the Centre's financial literacy campaign for a cashless economy will yield academic credits to students of higher educational institutions, including the IITs. The Union HRD ministry has launched a scheme called the Vittiya Saksharta Abhiyan (Visaka) under which heads of institutions have been advised to give students credits for taking forward the Prime Minister's agenda. "Directors of all institutions should ensure that the necessary...

-The Hindu Industry has expressed concern over the directive New Delhi: The Centre has asked all employers and contractors to ensure that wages are paid to all employees, including casual and contract workers, through cheques or electronic transfers into a bank account. The Chief Labour Commissioner, under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, has also asked firms to get bank accounts opened for all those workers who do not have one already, and...

-The Hindu Delay in monsoon has compounded the problems of farm labourers from Bahour commune Puducherry: The double whammy of demonetisation and delay in monsoon has crippled the rural population of Puducherry as they struggle to make their ends meet. The demonetisation move has brought the construction activity across the rural areas to a standstill, throwing thousands out of jobs and without money. The construction sites in rural areas of Bahour, Villianur, Mannadipet...

-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...