-The Hindu The government must target labour market rigidities to maximise gainful employment in the textile sector. India’s textile and apparel industry is all set for an overhaul as the new National Textile Policy will soon be placed before the Cabinet for approval. The government has already accepted a Rs.60 billion special package for this sector with an aim to create 10 million new jobs in the next three years, attract investments...

-TheGuardian.com Hardworking women in India care for family members, cook, clean, garden, sew and farm without getting paid. When will official statistics recognise this? Women’s participation in work is an indicator of their status in a society. Paid work offers more opportunities for women’s agency, mobility and empowerment, and it usually leads to greater social recognition of the work that women do, whether paid or unpaid. Where women’s work participation rates are relatively...

-The Hindu Business Line How trained youth from rural India fare in urban work spaces Yesterday was World Youth Skills Day (July 15), an opportune time to meet some of the country’s rural youth who have recently skilled under government programmes and moved to work in the Delhi NCR region. Outside their comfort zone and working in the competitive, urban environment for the first time, life can be challenging on all fronts. Ask 30-year-old...

-The Hindu Business Line Supplementary nutrition scheme to be standardised New Delhi: The flagship Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), which aims to provide nutritious food to children aged 0-6, is being revamped and may be standardised to address the issue of “high” malnutrition. As per the Global Nutrition Report, 39 per cent of children (0-5 years) in India are stunted, much higher than the global average of 24 per cent. Tackling malnutrition The Women &...

-The Financial Express The rural development ministry has identified unrealistic planning at gram panchayat level, lack of quality assets created, inadequate capacity of functionaries, inadequate technical staff, lack of monitoring and delay in wage payment, as factors adversely impacting the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The report on performance, initiatives and strategies (FY15-16 and FY16-17) for MGNREGA released by the rural development ministry also identified issues...