The challenges before the coming Budget are more daunting than those in 2021, reveals A K Bhattacharya.
Here are the 10 key issues likely to be the centre of discussion in the seven-phase general elections that begin on April 19.
'I found it unbelievable that L&T said 45,000 jobs were waiting to be filled because of unavailability of suitable skillsets.' 'So, when the Opposition sweepingly says there are no jobs, I'm sorry... I'm not saying it's raining jobs, but there are jobs. The (skill) gap has to be bridged.'
According to new proposal for amendements in the labour law, a worker will be allowed to object to being laid off within three years, against no clear period specified in the law now.
Talking to PTI Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), said, "The two-day nationwide strike by the joint forum of central trade unions has begun this morning". About the impact of the agitation, she said that the entire coal belt (mining area) is affected in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. She also said that there is a good response in industrial areas of Assam, Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The AITUC official noted that the banks and insurance sectors are affected all over India, while steel and oil sectors are also seeing partial impact due to the strike. Kaur said that she has got preliminary reports that markets are closed in Odisha.
The farmers also marched along the ambulance and demanded action against those who are responsible for his death.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Telangana T Raja Singh has been booked for allegedly delivering a hate speech at a rally in Mumbai on January 29, a police official said on Thursday.
Farmers will march towards Delhi on Tuesday after a meeting with two Union ministers over their demands, including legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP) for crops, remained inconclusive.
The Model Code of Conduct for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections has come in the way of release of routine economic data like the consumer price indices.
Farmers leaders taking part in the 'Delhi Chalo' agitation on Monday rejected the Centre's proposal of procuring pulses, maize and cotton at MSP by government agencies for five years, saying it was not in farmers' interest and announced that they will march towards the national capital on Wednesday.
Never before has the need for creating an ambience for economic policy reforms been as critical as it is now, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Under the New Code on Wages Bill 2019, employers will be required to give the minimum wages, notified by either the state or the Centre, to the unorganised sector, too.
A team of three Union ministers will hold talks on Monday with a delegation of farmer leaders, who are planning to march towards Delhi to press for their demands.
'The government is sincerely working on employment generation. Unfortunately, they are depending on these people from Harvard. Their wrong policies are killing jobs. The government has to come out of the Western framework on which they depend upon a lot.'
With the Congress already opposed to the proposed law, regional parties might become the swing factor, says T N Ninan.
A "big spark" in the electricity pole providing power to the girder launcher preceded its collapse during the construction of a viaduct for the Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra's Thane district a day ago, in which at least 20 persons were killed, the police said on Wednesday.
However, the government has enacted an important change to the fixed-term employment framework that may help companies in handing out contractual jobs to its existing permanent workforce.
The Minimum Wages Act was enacted in 1948.
The transition to UPI-based ATMs will be gradual, and consumers will not immediately switch to using standalone UPI ATMs overnight.
But use of that word -- privatisation -- is not encouraged. This seems to be a classic case of reforms through subtle signals, observes A K Bhattacharya.
Till such time that a new governance framework comes into being, the progress of reforms in health, education, land, labour, electricity and agriculture could remain fraught with problems, agitations and delays, observes A K Bhattacharya.
According to a proposal by the Union labour ministry, 10 per cent of the employees or 100 workers will be needed at least to form a trade union
The government further defended its move to introduce fixed-term employment, insisting that the present system of hiring workers through contractors is exploitative.
It was a special-purpose mobile gantry crane used in bridge construction and to install precast box girders in highway construction projects.
Muhammed Ameerul Islam was found guilty for raping and murdering the 30-year-old Dalit law student in Kerala last year.
The Direct Taxes Code suffers from serious weaknesses.
The case was registered against the minister and four others earlier this week on the orders of the high court, after the local police allegedly did not act on the complaint filed with them.
ndependent of the political fallout, which Stalin has sought to arrest through the withdrawal of the measures as fast as they were introduced, there are concerns about the way those decisions came to be taken, without adequate application of mind, not in official terms but in political and electoral contexts, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
India can become a $6.7 trillion economy by 2031, from $3.4 trillion currently, if the country clocks an average growth of 6.7 per cent for 7 years, an S&P Global report said on Thursday. India had clocked a 7.2 per cent GDP growth in 2022-23 fiscal. But a global slowdown and lagged effect of a policy rate hike by RBI could slow down growth to 6 per cent in the current fiscal, S&P Global said in a report titled 'Look Forward: India's Money'.
Given the many policy areas where the Centre and the states have not been seeing eye to eye in the last few years, it is time the Modi government convenes a meeting of the Inter-State Council, recommends A K Bhattacharya.
There is talk of a fresh approach to a new labour code as well as reforming land acquisition laws in such a way as to be politically.
If Modi wants to leave a real legacy, breaking India's strategic triangulation would be the real gift, notes Shekhar Gupta.
A special investigation team (SIT) has been formed to unravel the mystery surrounding the alleged theft of 240 British-era gold coins by four policemen in Madhya Pradesh's Alirajpur district, an official said on Wednesday.
Narendra Modi's pay-off from relaxing labour laws would be huge.
After agonizing over this for weeks, he made a decision. When they met after work one evening, he startled her by blurting out, 'I think we should break up.' A moving excerpt from Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayana Murthy.
The court also ordered that of the total fine amount imposed on the convicts, Rs 12 lakh will be paid to the victim's family.
While all indicators pointed to economy drastically slowing down due to lack of demand, the government continued to steer its policies in the name of 'ease of doing business', aggravating widespread impoverishment and deepening the crisis further, the unions alleged.
Women can now work as bartenders in Karnataka albeit under a dress code that forms part of the government guidelines which received the high court nod on Tuesday.
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