-Down to Earth A significant number of beneficiaries of the scheme are women and from backward community. Balod, Dhamtari, Durg, Raipur and Rajnadgaon districts have taken the lead in implementation The new Godhan Nyay scheme by the Chhattisgarh government — advertised as revolutionary — was launched July 2020 in the backdrop of the state’s flagship ‘Naruva-Garuva-Ghuruva-Badi’ programme. Naruva means a seasonal or perennial stream, garuva means animal husbandry, ghuruva means composting and badi...

-The Hindu Incidents took place during Bakrid on August 1 and Ram temple bhoomi pujan on August 5. Chennai: The police have decided to register cases against thousands of Muslims and Hindus on charges of violating prohibitory orders promulgated under Section 144 of the CrPC and participating in religious events during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown. Muslims held special prayers and offered qurbani (slaughtering of cattle) across the State on July 31/August 1 in...

-Down to Earth Villagers gain employment through the job guarantee scheme, used as a means to revive rural infrastructure like reservoirs, cattle sheds Thirty-one-year-old Ram Ratan was employed as a ‘saksham’ teacher at a government school in Haryana’s Kurukshetra district till March 18, 2020. Ratan was hopeful about his job and — armed with a Masters in psychology and a diploma in guidance and counselling which he completed in February — pursued...

-Livemint.com * The pandemic-induced global pause resulted in several visible environmental gains. Will they last? * A controversy is brewing over the government’s efforts to push through radical changes to the country’s environmental laws, which seek to further dilute environmental protections NAGPUR: Teeming wildlife; cities breathing fresh air; and clearer rivers. Those were all small signs of hope amid a dire, once-in-a-century pandemic. Nature was supposedly healing. At one point in April, an...

Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...