IPA Staff
16505 stories by IPA Staff
50 Years After Franco’s Death, Fascist Legacy Still Haunts Spain
By Jim Jump MADRID: “Spaniards, Franco has died,” came the announcement 50 years ago on Spanish TV. If there was any truth to the widely held story that Barcelona immediately ran out of cava, the corks would have been popping behind closed doors. Most Spaniards held their breath on...
Centre Pushes Labour Reforms, Notifies Codes; Draft Rules Out Soon
NEW DELHI: The implementation of the four Labour Codes, notified on Friday, is set to increase operating costs for large companies due to mandated higher wage-related expenses and stricter accountability for safety and working conditions. However, companies will benefit from simplified compliance requirements, including a single registration, a PAN-India...
Flash PMI Falls To 6-Month Low At 59.9 In November; New Hiring Slowest In 18 Months
MUMBAI: After a record run, primarily driven by the front-loading of exports to the US and also the early arrivals of the festive season, which had ramped up the business activity to record highs in the previous months, decelerated a tad to hit a six-month low in November at...
PSU NBFCs Plan To Raise Up To ₹24,000 Crore Through Bonds Next Week
MUMBAI: Ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) monetary policy review in the first week of December, major financial companies — such as Nabard, Sidbi, PFC, and IRFC — plan to raise up to ₹24,000 crore together through bond issuances next week. Majority of the issuances amounting to...
Govt Cuts Gratuity Eligibility To 1 Year From 5 Years Under New Labour Codes
NEW DELHI: In a major reform that will benefit lakhs of employees who frequently switch jobs, the Government of India has reduced the minimum service requirement for gratuity from five years to just one year under the new Labour Codes that come into force from today, i.e. 21st November...
Big Step Towards Accelerating Formal, High-Productivity Jobs: Experts
NEW DELHI: Hanging fire since 2019-20, the four labour codes will go a long distance towards universalising minimum wages and social security for all workers and accelerate formal job creation, experts said. The codes, they said, will also significantly ease the compliance burden and the retrenchment process, aligning with...
India’s Higher-Education System Is Driving Students Out — Not Bringing The World In
By R. Suryamurthy India’s student mobility crisis is no longer a question of data, it is an indictment of a system that has refused to reform while the world moved on. The new NITI Aayog paper does not so much analyse this imbalance as expose it. The numbers are...
Big Technological Changes In Employment Market Widening Income Divide
By Sanjay Roy Employment across the world is undergoing changes. The changes are multi-dimensional, driven by shifting nature of labour contract by skill grades, impacted by uncertainty and shocks in supply chains. However, the tendencies are neither uniform across countries nor do they show uniformity in direction of change....
Following Reverses In Bihar Polls, Congress Leadership Of INDIA Bloc Is Challenged
By Rahil Nora Chopra The political activity in Uttar Pradesh is heated up as senior Samajwadi Party leader Ravidas Mehrotra remarked that SP president Akhilesh Yadav should lead the I.N.D.I.A. alliance in place of Congress. Congress Lok Sabha MP Imran Masood, however, quickly countered the remark saying that Rahul...
American Economic Policies Are Meant To Impose Austerity On Working People
By Prabhat Patnaik The fact that speculation can exacerbate a basic situation of shortage of a commodity by encouraging its hoarding, or even cause a completely artificial shortage of it when no basic shortage exists, and thereby play havoc with the lives of the working people, especially when the...
Despite Political Turbulence, Bangladesh Hikes Its Garment Exports To USA
By Kunal Bose I got a sweater the other day produced in Bangladesh, as good as you get anywhere but picked up by my daughter in the United States. The south Asian country in spite of serious political unrest, which has its expected fallout in the economy has managed...
Xinjiang In China Has Emerged As A Model Of Digital Governance For The Entire Country
By Aritra Banerjee China’s approach to governing Xinjiang has often been described through individual components: detention centres, forced labour programmes, intrusive surveillance systems, and strict ideological conditioning. Yet the full picture becomes clearer only when these parts are viewed as a single structure. Xinjiang is not an isolated policy...
Punjab Govt Decision To Appoint Jitender Shunty As Human Rights Commission Member Is Welcome
By Jag Mohan Thaken CHANDIGARH: When due to the fear of spread of Corona, everyone was hesitant even to attend the funeral of his nears and dears, then this angel was performing the last rites of corona affected dead bodies without any selfish motto and facilitated the dignified last...
UAE-India Startup Series Draws 10,000 Founders, Boosts Economic Ties
NEW DELHI: The India-UAE Startup Series, launched in June this year, is turning economic diplomacy into a real-world opportunity, with the largest start-up initiative attracting more than 10,000 founders from across the country and sectors, UAE Ambassador to India Abdulnasser Alshaali said on Thursday. Alshaali, in his keynote address...
India Posts Highest-Ever Defence Output Of Rs 1.54 Lakh Crore In FY25
NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday said that India recorded its highest-ever defence production of Rs 1.54 lakh crore in FY 2024–25, setting a new benchmark in the country’s pursuit of self-reliance in the defence sector. This growth is supported by the record indigenous production of Rs 1,27,434 crore...
Growth Of Eight Key Infrastructure Sectors Remains Flat In October
NEW DELHI: Output from India’s eight core sectors flatlined in October from an upgraded 3.3 per cent uptick in September, as growth in construction-linked sectors and refinery products was negated by marked contractions in energy sectors like coal, natural gas and electricity, according to data released by the Ministry...
PSU Banks Power Asset Quality Gains; Private Players Maintain Red-Lines In Q2
MUMBAI: The second quarter of the current fiscal was all for the public sector lenders—the traditional laggards on all key metrics– with their robust recoveries and upgrades, lower fresh slippages coupled with higher write-offs and sales to ARCs, their gross bad loans hitting a decadal low of 2.1 percent...
Reliance Stops Import Of Russian Crude Oil Into Jamnagar’s SEZ Refinery
NEW DELHI: Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has stopped import of Russian crude oil into its Special Economic Zone (SEZ) refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat, with effect from November 20, the company said in a statement late Thursday evening. This comes hours before the United States’ sanctions on Russian...
