-The Indian Express UP is truly at the crossroads: The state is uniquely poised to leverage opportunities from agriculture and build on the base laid by Entrepreneurs, whether in sugar, potatoes, buffalo meat, leather or mentha oil. But, it is equally in danger of being taken back by decades, courtesy leaders with exclusivist and narrow-minded visions. Efforts to market it as an Uttam Pradesh notwithstanding, UP or Uttar Pradesh, is for...

-The Hindu The provision of health, education and public services matters more than income support schemes It is by now close to 50 years since Indira Gandhi brought the idea of eradicating poverty into the electoral arena in India. ‘Garibi Hatao’ had been her slogan. She actually took the country some distance in the promised direction. Though it had not come close to being eradicated in her time, it was under her...

-The Telegraph Demand for work under the MGNREGA was at its highest in the 2018-19 fiscal The job crisis has deepened and become more commonplace during the last five years, according to officials familiar with employment data. Consider this: Demand for work under the national job scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), was at its highest in the 2018-19 fiscal. Started in 2006 to provide a fallback employment source to...

-The Telegraph Funding small Entrepreneurs will require more bank loans, preferably collateral-free, which will generate more NPAs The government has been compelling banks to adopt a softer lending policy to promote self-employment. The Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, launched in 2015, provides collateral-free loans to small Entrepreneurs outside the farming sector in three categories: Rs 50,000 loan in the ‘Shishu’, Rs 5,00,000 in the ‘Kishore’ and Rs 10,00,000 in the ‘Tarun’ segments respectively....

-The Telegraph Only 1.12 crore jobs created in three years under the Mudra scheme, the bureau's data suggested New Delhi: A central government agency has been asked to “revalidate” data which estimated that only 1.12 crore additional jobs were created in three years under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, a scheme Prime Minister Narendra Modi cites to defend his record on employment generation, sources have told The Telegraph. Several independent analysts suspect that...