‘The least that every worker in field and factory is entitled to is a minimum wage which will enable him to live in modest comfort, and humane hours of labour which do not break his strength or spirit...,’ Jawaharlal Nehru declared stirringly in his presidential address to Congress in Lahore in 1929. Eight decades later, the Union government of free India resolved that it would not pay the minimum wage...

Even though the Central Government agreed to link the wages paid under MG-NREGA to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPIAL), it shied away from paying statutory minimum wages in various states of India. Their logic for this: Lack of clarity on who will bear the extra financial burden—the Centre or the states? A letter from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to UPA and NAC Chairperson Sonia Gandhi dated 31...

‘Linking the question to annihilation of caste is an important research agenda' ‘Dalits' position relative to dominant castes has not improved significantly' Participants at a national seminar on ‘Dalit households in village economies,' which began here on Friday, affirmed that a lasting solution to India's “agrarian question” — characterised by extreme inequalities in the distribution of land — was inseparably linked to the widespread discrimination of Dalits. Speaking at the inaugural session of...

Krishi Bhavan supports endosulfan companies; Kerala protests THE timing and the message of the conference could not have been more stark. At a time when the endosulfan problem is in the limelight, sparking calls for a nationwide ban on the pesticide, its manufacturers staged a remarkable feat. They held a three-day conference on rural prosperity at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan, venue for high-power official meetings, and put across the message that the hazardous...

The Centre is expected to announce a new pharma policy in the next few months. The ministry of chemicals and fertilisers has discussed with concerned stakeholders and will seek further inputs on the matter before placing the draft note to a group of ministers (GoM) for final touches, chemicals and fertilisers minister MK Azhagiri said on Wednesday. Hinting this at a conference on ‘Intellectual Property Rights: Challenges and way forward for...