-The HIndustan Times There is concern again about missing persons and bodies found in canals in Haryana. Surfacing of such bodies in Punjab’s canals has figured in media reports for years. But neither Punjab nor Haryana police take interest in retrieving the bodies, as the recovery involves reporting it, then attempting to identify it and locating the kin, cremation and maintenance of a record. Pushing bodies downstream eliminates all this bother. But...

Remember Arjun Sengupta Committee Report? It’s the same report which put paid to government’s shifting poverty estimates by asserting that almost 80% Indian survive on less than Rs 20 per day. Known as the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS), the report has gone missing from the public domain. The official website of NCEUS is no more working: http://nceus.gov.in, raising doubts regarding someone, somewhere trying to hide...

-The Economic Times As the monsoon plays truant, the tragic face of our agrarian distress, suicide by farmers, is likely to manifest again in several parts of the country. A state like Maharashtra, where large acreages of a cash crop like cotton are grown under rain-fed conditions, is particularly vulnerable to such vagaries of weather and has, for long, remained the 'suicide capital' of the country. There is credible data to show...

-The Hindu An anthology of independent evaluations of MGNREGA shows that it has provided income security, improved health, narrowed the gender gap and created useful assets   In the midst of the debates that prevail in this country over the feasibility of the world’s largest public works programme, the MGNREGA Sameeksha — an anthology of independent research studies and analysis on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, from 2006-2012 — is...

-The Economic Times The rural development ministry is preparing for a big push to its flagship employment generation programme as drought has depressed demand for farm labour. The ministry has written to state governments asking them to identify development projects under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) to ensure there's enough work available for those in need.  "We expect demand for work and wages to go up in the coming...