-The Hindu India's growth story of the last two decades has had one recurring theme: that the pattern of economic growth is accentuating insecurities. Yet, there continues to be a deep divide over whether the gains from growth ought to be ploughed back to achieve social security for everyone. Social security has come to be linked to job benefits, tying it to one's status as a worker in the formal or...

-The Hindu Kolkata: At a time when the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government has a strained relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre, a report by the Labour Bureau of India suggested that Bengal's employment rate was on the rise. According to the TMC's official website, the fourth Annual Employment-Unemployment Survey Report revealed that the unemployment rate in 2014 fell to 52 from 74 in 2012-13, the lowest since the...

-Business Standard Working on clubbing all the 44 labour laws into five segments The Centre might take up changes to the Industrial Disputes Act on the lines of what the Rajasthan government recently did, sources said. The Union ministry has started work on clubbing all the 44 labour laws into five segments - industrial relations, wages, social security, working conditions and welfare cess. Sources told Business Standard the views of stakeholders had been taken...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Bihar and Jharkhand are the most laggard among states when it comes to implementing midday meals in schools, child services and other social initiatives, reveals a recent study. In all, the study by IIT-Delhi identified Bihar and Jharkhand as the worst performers for five Social welfare programmes which also include the public distribution system, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and social security pensions. The study, which covered 10...

-The Hindu The recently released draft National Health Policy 2015 highlights the "challenge" of population stabilisation in six of the 11 States. Following massive protests over the death of 13 women who underwent the sterilisation procedure of tubectomy in Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh last November, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has written to all States reminding them that every person should be counselled about the different family planning options available....