-FirstPost.com Uncertainty over the supply of subsidised foodgrain to over 19 lakh families in Assam whose livelihoods are linked to work in the tea gardens is threatening to not only spark dissent among workers but has got the industry leaders worried. To understand the impact, consider the case of Deepak Daori and Monica Daori - both workers at Mokalbari Tea Estate in Dibrugarh district. "We are worried that the our monthly ration might...
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Being middle class in India -Devesh Kapur and Milan Vaishnav
-The Hindu Are differences within the middle class, in income, education, and cultural and social capital, so wide as to render moot any ideological or behavioural coherence to this group? The rapid growth of the Indian economy over the past three decades has led to a substantial expansion of India's "middle class". This has triggered a robust debate over who in India actually belongs to the "middle class," its size, composition, and...
More »Labour law violations in Govt sector: number of inspection declines
-The Hindu Business Line Cases of prosecutions over wages, contract workers, Child Labour are down Among key initiatives of the Narendra Modi government has been the fast-tracking of labour law reforms to put an end to ‘inspector raj' and improving the country's rank in the World Bank's ease of ‘doing business' index. However, when it comes to checking labour law violations, the number of inspections in the Central sphere, which includes banks, railways,...
More »Cash transfers can work better than subsidies -Guy Standing
-The Hindu Providing people with a modest basic income instead of subsidies would save public revenue With oil prices falling, it was perhaps a good time to fade out fuel subsidies. All subsidies are inefficient and distortionary, and most are regressive. The same could be said of costly public works schemes as well. By contrast, the debate on direct benefit transfers has moved into a more sensible phase, with the posturing criticism of...
More »Droughts, unseasonal rains push Jalna farmers to agricultural labour -Shoumojit Banerjee
-The Hindu Jalna (Maharashtra): An angry silence greets one on entering the village of Dhasalgaon in Jalna district. Perpetuating agrarian crises for the last three years have made the once-proud farmers of this village poor. Despite the newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party government's announcement that it seek a Rs. 4,500-crore package from the Centre, farmers in Jalna have wearied of the lip service that Mumbai's mandarins have been paying them for the...
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