Ten days ago a well-informed reader in Kochi e-mailed a convincing case for banning endosulfan, an off-patent pesticide widely used by farmers round the country, on the reasoning that it played havoc with the lives and livelihoods of poor farm workers. But the reader did not stop with this; he said The Hindu had not given the issue the attention it warranted. This led me to a qualitative study of...
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Male preserve by TK Rajalakshmi
Haryana records the lowest adult sex ratio in the country, and its Jhajjar district has the worst adult and child sex ratios. THE results of the provisional Census revealed that Haryana as a whole registered the lowest adult sex ratio in the country and also had the lowest child sex ratio (CSR). Among the State's districts, Jhajjar recorded the lowest adult as well as child sex ratio, and within the district,...
More »Labour reform slips out of list as India Inc has greater worries by Devika Banerji
Archaic labour laws are not affecting India's manufacturing sector as much as problems related to land, water, licences and clearances, a government panel's study shows. With the findings of the Planning Commission study, changing rigid labour laws, so far suspected to be the main hurdle before the manufacturing sector, is likely to drop on the government's list of priorities. The sector contributes 15% to India's GDP. "Against popular perception, we...
More »SMEs blame NREGA for labour woes by Saurabh Gupta
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have blamed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) for shortage of labour, which has led to increase in input cost of the products and eating into profit margins. "Now a days there is scarcity of labourers by 25 to 30 percent in SMEs. There is a high percentage of unskilled labour, which forms the core of employee recruitment in the local small and...
More »Confident TMC & anxious Left shun Netai by Naresh Jana
A deathly silence hangs over Netai. In neighbouring areas, poll campaigning is on in full swing but the village where nine persons were killed in firing from a CPM camp on January 7, is untouched by it. The Trinamul Congress is not canvassing in Netai as it is “confident” that nobody will vote for the CPM in the area. The CPM, on the other hand, is avoiding campaigning in the area...
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