-The Hindu Despite having Dhamanguda minor irrigation project, they could not access water from it Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh): Politicians are not the popular lot among the poor Adivasi voters holding the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) job cards in Adilabad district. As they feel that political leaders are responsible for their present pitiable state of utter poverty. "It's been ten years since the Dhamanguda minor irrigation was built, but we...
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The poor never had it so good -Subir Roy
-The Business Standard The dominant theme in the pre-election discourse is that misrule by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in its second term has led to sharply lower growth of gross domestic product (GDP), which Narendra Modi will reverse, the way he has made Gujarat shine. But the evidence on hand does not support this correlation between the quality of national political leadership and growth performance. If anything, there is...
More »Employer of the last resort? -Sonalde Desai, Omkar Joshi and Reeve Vanneman
-The Hindu The Centre's rural employment guarantee scheme can be substantially improved, but it has undeniably helped Dalits, Adivasis and women find work In an era of growing globalisation and rising inequality, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) stands out as a unique attempt to provide a social safety net via a massive public works programme. The government as an employer of the last resort is an idea that...
More »Declining sex ratios seen in gender scorecard -Sonalde Desai
-The Hindu While the stagnation in women's ability to control their own fate is disappointing, some of the other gender indicators are downright alarming On International Women's Day, the Election Commission of India held a special campaign to bring women voters to the polls. Although men and women vote at a more or less similar rate in State elections, women are 6-8 percentage points behind in the Lok Sabha elections where national...
More »Aadhaar, no more than a framed photograph -Amruta Byatnal
-The Hindu The aim of the Unique Identification Number was to make access to bank accounts easier but the first Aadhaar card holder is still not eligible for loans In September 2010, Ranjana Sonawane became the first person in the country to get an Aadhaar card when the Unique Identity (UID) project was flagged off with much fanfare in Tembhli village in Maharashtra. But today, what is unmistakeable is the disappointment the tribal...
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