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Centre nudges states to implement new labour codes, shifts reform goalpost
During 2019-20, Parliament consolidated 29 labour laws into four codes - Code on Wages; Code on Social Security; Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code; and Industrial Relations Code
Shiva Rajora New Delhi
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Narendra Kumar, 41, has been working as a delivery person for an online food aggregator during the day. Evening onwards, he's a security guard in a nearby milk factory.
'I usually work 13-14 hours in a day. If I fall sick even for a single day, I don't get anything from any of my jobs. Or if I meet with an accident, as I did last month, my employers would not give me anything, as they don't recognise me as their employee,'' Kumar pointed out. His ask: The government must step in to improve the working conditions.
Kumar, who is
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Mint
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Electoral rolls prep in India among most transparent in the world: CEC days after Rahul Gandhi's ‘match-fixing' charges
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said before an international audience that the preparation of electoral rolls in India is one of the world's most rigorous and transparent exercises amid allegations of fudging in voter data. Kumar said in his keynote address at the Stockholm International Conference on Electoral Integrity on 11 June that electoral rolls are shared with recognised national and state parties in accordance with law every year during revision and before the elections. These are CEC's first remarks since Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's recent allegations of irregularities in the Maharashtra assembly elections. In an article in The Indian Express last week, Gandhi had reiterated allegations he has made in the past. Flagging an 'incredible leap' in new voters, he had alleged 'bogus' voting and 'match-fixing' in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The poll authority has dubbed these charges as absurd. In his 11 June address, CEC Gyanesh Kumar said the rolls have been shared with recognised political parties since 1960, with the provision of claims, objections, and appeals. He said the preparation of the voters' list is one of the world's most rigorous and transparent exercises, reinforcing the accuracy and integrity of the electoral process. According to the Election Commission's statement, the CEC said that this robust mechanism has played a vital role in upholding electoral credibility across the country for years. Highlighting India's electoral integrity, scale and diversity, Kumar reaffirmed the role of the Election Commission in capacity-building programmes for election management bodies (EMBs) of countries around the globe. Over 100 participants representing EMBs of around 50 countries are taking part in the conference. He said the entire electoral process is closely monitored by political parties, candidates, police, expenditure observers, and the media, who, he stated, act as concurrent auditors at various stages. The CEC also highlighted the scale of coordination that underpins the conduct of elections in India. The preparation of the voters' list is one of the world's most rigorous and transparent exercises. With over 20 million personnel, including polling staff, police forces, observers, and agents of political parties, at the time of elections, the Election Commission becomes the world's largest organisation, surpassing the combined workforce of several national governments and major global corporations. It also ensures that India's nearly one billion electors are freely able to exercise their franchise, he said.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
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Quad Leaders Summit likely to be held in November
The Quad Leaders Summit is expected to be held in November, with the four members of the grouping now focused on giving shape to an agenda to bolster economic security and maritime security, people familiar with the matter said. The Quad Leaders Summit, which will be hosted by India this year, was earlier expected to be held in September but scheduling and logistical issues have resulted in plans to hold the meet later in the year, the people familiar with planning for the meeting said on condition of anonymity. However, dates are yet to be finalised for the summit, they said. Some Quad members believed September wouldn't be ideal for holding the summit because the focus would be on the UN General Assembly in New York, and the people pointed out that Japan is set to hold elections for the upper chamber of the Diet or the Parliament in July, leaving little time for preparations for a summit. The summit will be preceded by a meeting of the foreign ministers of India, Australia, Japan and the US - the four members of Quad - that is set to be hosted by Washington either in late June or early July, the people said. As preparations have progressed for the summit, the four members of Quad have felt the need to make the agenda more focused so that the grouping can come up with concrete deliverables, the people said. 'There was a feeling that the Quad had spread itself too thin by taking on too many things. There is a need for a more focused agenda,' one of the people said. The focus in shaping the agenda for the Quad Leaders Summit will be on infrastructure and technology, which both dovetail into creating economic security, maritime security and maritime domain awareness, and disaster response, a second person said. The people also said some aspects of shaping the agenda were influenced by the imperatives of the Donald Trump administration in the US. 'The cancer moonshot, which was conceived at the behest of the Biden administration, doesn't appear to be a priority at the moment,' the second person said. The Quad Cancer Moonshot, a global offshoot of a US initiative, focused on reducing the burden of cancer in the Indo-Pacific region, starting with cervical cancer. 'The Quad partners are giving shape to efforts to offer technology and funding for infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific so that smaller countries in the region have more options,' a third person said. The four members of Quad have already done considerable work to bolster the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA), which was launched in 2022 to combat illegal fishing and counter 'dark shipping'. Last year, the Quad agreed to expand this initiative to the Indian Ocean through the Indian Navy's Information Fusion Centre in Gurugram. The initiative aims to improve real-time maritime monitoring, particularly the identifying and tracking of suspicious or unlawful activities such as 'dark shipping', whereby ships switch off their tracking systems. In addition to the maritime domain awareness initiative, the Quad recently launched the Indo-Pacific Logistics Network (IPLN), which enables the grouping to leverage shared logistics capabilities in the Indo-Pacific to support the response to natural disasters. The people said IPMDA and IPLN reflect the Quad's commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and highlight practical cooperation to address regional challenges. Counter-terrorism too is expected to figure in both the upcoming meeting of Quad foreign ministers and the summit, and India will expect support from the other members of the grouping for its new approach to counter cross-border terrorism backed by Pakistan, the people said.
The Hindu
2 hours ago
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U.S. hyphenating India, Pak; PM must drop 'stubbornness' and call special session of Parliament: Congress
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