Contradicts Centre's line on issue of minimum wages payment Going against the view of the United Progressive Alliance government, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) has favoured the payment of statutory minimum wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). The NAC's line is in conflict with the January 1, 2009 notification issued by the Union Ministry of Rural Development, delinking the MNREGS wages from The...

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said the POSCO project, which has been a hanging fire for the last five years, has a potential of earning huge revenue for the Centre as well as the state and will create many employment opportunities for the country. Patnaik also said the implementaion of the Rs 51,000-crore project is also the responsibility of the central government. "It is also the responsibility of the Centre. The...

The National Advisory Council (NAC), which recently approved subsidised food for 75 per cent of population, has entrusted the task of drafting the Food Security Bill with a Working Group on food security for the consideration of the Council meeting, slated for November 26. The NAC working committee, while finalising the details of the Bill, will also look into proposals for introducing some reforms in the PDS system to efficiently carry...

The Rs 51,000-crore Posco steel project in Orissa, that has been delayed for five years, faces the prospect of getting delayed further. The ministry of tribal affairs is now looking at the possibility of whether the South Korean steel project, which also represents the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) in India so far, has actually encroached into the land owned by tribals. The Union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) has...

All school children across the country will soon have unique identification numbers (UID) which will help in tracking their movement in educational institutions and academic records. This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Union Human Resource Development Ministry and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) here on Wednesday. The system will help in tracking students' mobility by creating an electronic registry, right from the primary level through...