In the hue and cry over minimum wages under NREGS, battle lines have been drawn between those who favour central government hiking minimum wage rates to the state minimum, and others asserting that the two must be delinked. While the former invoke 'a right to livelihood', the latter point to the NREGS being 'the employer of the last resort and the imperative of better targeting'. While these views have some merit,...

-IBN   Orissa government today appointed S K Lohani, the director of Panchayati Raj department, as the nodal officer to assist the CBI team for a detailed probe into the alleged corruption in implementation of the rural job scam under MGNREGA, official sources said."S K Lohani will work as the state level nodal officer to assist the CBI's special investigation team. The additional district magistrates (ADMs) of six other districts are...

Gary Singh’s abduction ordeal illustrates the dangers faced by those who rely on smugglers to make their way overseas One day in 2006, 18-year-old Gubachan “Gary” Singh, an illegal immigrant in Manila, Philippines, was on his way to work when he was approached by four stocky Filipinos. One pulled out a gun, pressing the barrel into the small of his back, while another blindfolded him and shoved him into a van....

TARN TARAN, India—India's northern state of Punjab was once a symbol of the nation's economic progress, its advances in agriculture lauded world-wide as a spectacular feat that made India self-sufficient in food production. But Punjab today faces a grave economic crisis, the result of years of shoddy governance that have stunted growth and created such a mound of public debt that the state is now seeking a multibillion dollar bailout from...

-The Telegraph   The Trinamul Congress was silent on the petrol price hike for the second day, its leaders only saying that Mamata Banerjee would speak on the issue. While Trinamul is still working on its response to the Rs 5 rise that the Left has pounced on to attack the UPA government, of which the party is a key member, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the Centre could not be...