-The Hindu In the latest move on its social welfare agenda, the government may expand its pension scheme, widening the net for widows, single and divorced women, disabled people, Dalits and tribal senior citizens, as well as increasing the amount paid to older people. The rural Development Ministry, which is proposing the expansion, estimates the additional cost at more than Rs. 18,000 crore per year. The Ministry has just accepted the recommendations made...

-Live Mint Charges that NREGA has pushed up agricultural wages fails to account for changing productivity In the debate over the costs and benefits of the Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), one of the most controversial and unsettled issues is its effect on agricultural labour market. Last year, Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar even went to the extent of recommending a 50% subsidy to farmers in wage costs due...

-The Business Standard Clamp down on burning of waste, industrial smoke Come winter, and Delhi is wrapped in a blanket of smog. It isn’t pretty. Also, it poses grave environmental, health and transportation hazards. Winter seems to have come early this year, and so has the smog. The economic costs are considerable: the winter schedule of airlines and trains invariably goes haywire owing to poor visibility. People breathe in more particulate...

-Madurai To tackle the spread of dengue,the district administration has decided to release "Gambusia" fishlings in water bodies to control the dengue spreading mosquitoes. Release of the fishlings in water bodies and the stagnant water sources has begun in the presence of Arun Sundar Dayalan, Project director of District rural Development Agency at Narasingampatti village,a release said here today. The measure was taken after District Collector, Anshul Mishra ordered the fisheries department to...

-CNN-IBN Ghazipur: Semraul village in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur district is an example of how irresponsible the bureaucracy can be. The population of the village is 3,600 but on paper neither the village nor its inhabitants exist. Due to the negligence of government employees the population of the village on paper is zero. Village pradhan Sabhajit Singh Kushwaha is struggling to get this glaring error rectified. In this village there are more than...