PM seeks industry, TU co-operation to boost biz sentiment; says govt committed to social security for workers

May 17,  2:21 PM Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today sought co-operation of industry and trade unions to help encourage enterprise and business sentiment in the country. Inaugurating the 45th session of the Indian Labour Conference in New Delhi, Dr. Singh said, the government has paid serious attention to issues raised by trade unions. He said, the UPA Government is committed to strict implementation of labour laws, welfare and universal social security cover for workers in both the organised and unorganised sectors. He said, the government is considering the creation of a National Security Fund and also to fix national floor level minimum wage and minimum pension of Rs.1000 under the employees pension scheme. Dr. Singh asked the government, industry and trade unions to work in partnership to strengthen society, economy and the country. A GoM headed by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, has been set up to go into all the demands raised by trade unions. Dr. Singh said, demands of the trade unions reflect the concern that economic growth and progress should be inclusive and benefit the underprivileged sections of society. He also said, providing productive employment is the best way of achieving this objective. Dr. Singh said, special attention have been paid to remove bottlenecks that hamper new industrial activities. During UPA's tenure, 20 million additional jobs were created and unemployment came down from 8.3 per cent to 6.6 per cent. Women employment in the organised sector grew by about 19 per cent. Dr. Singh said, women's participation is more than 48 per cent in the MGNREGA scheme which has helped reduce inter-state migration, eliminating bonded labour and increasing purchasing power of rural households. Noting that due to persistent efforts of the UPA government, even though child labour has come down by 45 per cent during its tenure, Dr. Singh said there is need to bring it down further. Union Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said, the UPA government's efforts on skill development have led to the doubling of the number of ITIs from five thousand to ten thousand. He said, 1700 government ITIs have also been modernized. Another 3000 ITIs, 5000 Skill Development Centres and 27 Advanced Training Institutes are to be set up during the 12th five year plan. Life saving drugs cheaper by up to 80% under new drug price control order May 17,  1:51 PM Prices of 348 medicines, including life saving drugs, will be cheaper soon by up to 80 per cent as the new Drug Price Control Order has come into effect. Industry experts feel the implementation of the new drug policy will lead to slashing of prices of many anti-cancer and anti-infective drugs by 50-80 per cent. The government has notified the Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO), 2013, with effect from fifteenth of this month, replacing the 1995 order. The new order gives power to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy (NPPP) 2012 to regulate prices of 348 essential drugs. The earlier order had regulated prices of only 74 bulk drugs. As per the new drugs policy, all strengths and dosages specified in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) 2011 will be under price control FM says GoM headed by him will work towards functional autonomy for CBI May 17,  1:52 PM Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by him, will work towards giving functional autonomy to CBI but at the same time asserted that accountability is important. Mr. Chidambaram said this in an interview with a TV news Channel yesterday that the goverment will give CBI functional autonomy and will ensure a large degree of functional autonomy to the agency in the matters of investigation. Mr. Chidambaram's comments came three days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the constitution of the high-powered Group of Ministers (GoM) to finalise a plan of action to secure autonomy for the CBI. The Finance Minister, who is on an official visit to the UK on the first leg of this three-nation tour to woo foreign investors, also addressed the issue of accountability. He said, all over the world, all bodies are accountable to somebody but we have to ensure that no one interferes with the investigations of the CBI. Broadcasting Content Complaints Council to channels: Exercise greater caution in selecting content May 17 Faced with several complaints against cartoon channels for showing scenes which are unsuitable for children, the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council has asked the channels to exercise greater caution in selecting content. Official sources in New Delhi said, the Council, which is the self regulatory body of the broadcast industry headed by Justice (Retd) A P Shah, took a serious note of the complaints and has asked them to be more sensitive in choosing content to be aired for children on TV channels. As its advisory, the complaints relate to telecast of "objectionable" content, visuals, theme, animation and/or use of "inappropriate" language in some programmes aired on children's and cartoon channels.