-The Hindu Figuring out key parameters on which to measure a State’s performance provides a playbook of best practices for others to follow. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (MGNREGA) aims at “enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.” In the financial year...

Situation alarming: More than one-third population hit by drought   The country is facing severe drought for the second consecutive year. Conservative estimates from official sources show that over a quarter of rural habitations are facing drinking water scarcity. Although both India Meteorological Department and Skymet have predicted a more than normal rainfall during June-September, 2016, the water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country has declined from 22 percent...

There is a general perception that men are the primary breadwinners and, therefore, they are the ones responsible for fending for their families. However, recently released data from the population Census 2011 shows that around 3.3 crore households in the country are headed by women. In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). The Census data shows that there are 59.4 lakh single member female-headed...

-The Hindu For jobs to grow, consumer demand has to improve consistently. This can only happen with an industrial policy, which India has not had since 1991 There will be no demographic dividend without growth in industrial and service sector jobs. The underlying logic behind a dividend is that as jobs grow, incomes rise and so do savings. Based on higher savings, the investment rate to GDP grows, resulting in faster GDP...

-PTI Several villages in Bundelkhand region spread over Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are facing "acute shortage" of drinking water, cattle deaths along with "inaction" of the state machinery, a survey by Swaraj Abhiyan said. Releasing the survey report, Swaraj Abhiyan co-founder Yogendra Yadav today said 40 per cent of the 43 surveyed villages in Madhya Pradesh were depending on "two or less" hand pumps for their water needs. Among the 79 villages...