-TheWire.in As a fresh spotlight hits India's rural employment programme, two suggestions have been offered to “repurpose” MGNREGA to utilise the additional labour force that have returned to their villages. Due to the sudden lockdown and resultant job losses, over one crore people have returned to their homes, some walking hundreds of kilometres, others using all conceivable means of transport – buses, trucks, trailers, concrete mixers, Shramik trains, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, auto...

-Business Standard Food insecurity is on the rise as subsidised food distributed via govt-run ration shops is not easily available to everyone Napoleon once famously said that an army marches on its stomach. Many argue that the present countrywide lockdown is causing widespread poverty and consequent hunger, making it that much harder for the nation to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, the work of Dilli Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan (DRRAA), Right...

-The Financial Express NBFCs are at the forefront of financing many of the affected sectors, NOTAbly small road transport operators, taxi aggregators, infrastructure contractors, MSMEs, traders etc. After banks wrote to the regulator asking for moratorium on corporate repayments, their non-banking counterparts have sought a three-month moratorium on equated monthly instalment (EMI) payments by their customers as much of the country goes into lockdown mode. Non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) are also asking...

-The Hindu The absence of playgrounds and electricity in govt. schools speaks poorly of policy priorities It should rank as an irony that as a founder-leader of the International Solar Alliance, India has not yet electrified a significant number of government schools, while extolling the elegance and virtue of photovoltaic electricity to the rest of the world. The lack of power in schools is taken note of by the Parliamentary Standing Committee...

-The Tribune LIC is India’s biggest stock-market investor. Once listed, it might be tempted to increase its exposure to equities. We know what that did to India’s most popular mutual fund in the late 1990s. UTI’s US-64 collapsed because it had made too many risky investments. Most of 20 crore small investors never recovered investments A few years ago, I was part of a jury to select the best businesses in India...