No celebrity visits or satellite banking system? Never mind, bring on ‘suppat’. Unlike Doba, three other villages of Lohardaga district may not have been lucky enough to get Reserve Bank of India’s smart card based satellite-banking system. But they have a ‘suppat’ surprise up their sleeves. ‘Suppat’ or ‘super’ in tribal dialect, is also the name of a rural chain of mom-and-pop stores initiated by a private party, Dynamic Tarang Pvt Ltd,...

A direct outcome of the global economic crisis has been a decline in the rate of growth of wages across the world, barring Asia and Latin America. A study by the International Labour Organisation, Global Wage Report 2010-11: Wage policies in times of crisis, highlights this reality and points to the need for countries to put in place proper social and labour market policies to protect an increasingly vulnerable workforce....

As part of the ongoing Northeast Agri Expo 2010, a workshop on the topic ‘Food Security vis-à-vis Climate Change’, was held at the Agri Expo site, Dimapur, with Additional Secretary and Deputy Team Leader, NEPED, Nagaland, Raj Verma as the Chairman. Dr. S.V. Ngachan, Director ICAR Research complex for NEH Region, Umiam Meghalaya, also the co-chairman of the session, dwelt at length on climate proofing of Agriculture in North East India,...

The Department of Personnel and Training has made it clear that at present there is no proposal to introduce in Parliament a new Bill, viz SC/ST (Reservation in Posts and Services), though the earlier Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2008 was later withdrawn. The DoPT stated this in reply to a query raised by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Vichar Manch general secretary R.L. Kain whether the government would come out...

Terming as “very serious” the diseases suspected to have been caused by the use of Endosulfan in the Plantation Corporation of Kerala's cashew estates in the district, the National Human Rights Commission has recommended setting up a multi super-specialty hospital here to treat the victims. The health situation arising out of the use of Endosulfan on the PCK land is very serious and all agencies, including the government, people's representatives and...