Representatives of around 20 civil society organizations and NGOs met the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley as part of pre-budget consultation on social sector on 12 January, 2016. Immediately after the pre-budget consultation, a press conference was held by some of these organizations to convey the media persons what demands/ suggestions were made.   Subrat Das, Executive Director of Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA, http://www.cbgaindia.org/) informed us that during...

-The Hindu Business Line Land should not be viewed as the only factor of productivity. And, managing food prices calls for better market intelligence The Centre’s emphasis on manufacturing, manifested in initiatives such as ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’ have a downside: relative indifference to agriculture. Some of this is already visible in terms of rural distress and food price inflation. This can prove costly to the economy, reminiscent of the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Nearly 18 million villagers registered under the rural job scheme face the prospect of toiling without wages as funds have dried up amid a drought-triggered surge in demand for work. Twelve states have run up "negative balances", meaning workers' payments are due, while the rest have exhausted 95 per cent of the funds released to them so far, according to the rural development ministry, which runs the Mahatma...

-The Indian Express The seeming revival over the last two quarters reverses the trend of declining employment under MGNREGA seen during the first year of the Modi government. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the flagship welfare programme of the previous UPA government, appears to be staging a revival of sorts. And this turnaround is being attributed mainly to better monitoring by the Centre and timely release of funds. The July-September...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: The issue of one poverty number continues to absorb the NITI Aayog, and indications are that its task force on elimination of poverty will suggest having separate indicators for different social schemes such as health and housing. “A debate has been on within the task force on whether there should be one poverty number or separate indicators for different schemes… Discussions are also taking place on...