The National Advisory Council's recommendations on the National Food Security Bill are in danger of being brushed aside. It is the fate of most advisory committees that the government accepts whatever advice suits its purposes and ignores the rest. The first version of the National Advisory Council (NAC-1) managed to avoid that fate to some extent, due to favourable circumstances. NAC-1 was able to persuade the government to enact the...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the rural development ministry to develop an index for fixing and revising wages under rural job scheme NREGA. The move follows a letter from Sonia Gandhi requesting Singh to find a way to ensure workers under the scheme are paid the minimum wages across the country. The minimum wages in several states, such as Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Karnataka, are now higher than...

The government has firmed up an indexing system of minimum wages for various categories of labour to match the inflation after Congress President Sonia Gandhi asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that labourers are paid the minimum wages. The Rural Development Ministry is soon expected to issue a notification detailing the payment of minimum wages to various categories of workers, like industrial labourer or agricultural labourer, in tune with inflation,...

Over five crore Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers across the country will enjoy a 17 to 30 per cent rise in wages with their wage rate being linked with the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour(CPIAL) with immediate effect. The Ministry of Rural Development issued the notification in compliance with the directives of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had, however, differed with NAC chairperson Sonia Gandhi's recommendation for a hike in statutory...

Rolling out a slew of measures for the working class in 2010, the government effected key reforms in some labour acts while also raising the annual rate of returns on employee provident funds to 9.5 per cent. The steps came as the government also unveiled the draft national policy on employment with suggestions of launching of a employment guarantee scheme in urban areas on the lines of NREGA. It amended the Payment...