-The Indian Express NREGA is a demand-driven programme and if the demand vanishes because wages are low and uncertain, nothing will be able to save it. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is going through a deep crisis of delayed and failed wage payments. The problem is not new, but it is more serious than ever and threatens to undermine the entire programme. The crisis has at least four manifestations: Delayed payments,...

-The Hindu Report says it’s consumers who benefit from them more than farmers Despite the general perception that Indian farmers are beneficiaries of major subsidies, a new report says the overall effect of policy interventions between 2014 and 2016 is, in fact, a 6% annual reduction of gross farm revenues. Consumers, on the other hand, pay an average 25% less for commodities as a result of policy interventions. According to researchers at the...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Delhi is getting buried under mounds of garbage and Mumbai is sinking under water, but the government is doing nothing, an anguished Supreme Court said on Tuesday. It slapped fines on 10 states and two union territories for not filing their affidavits on their policies for solid waste management strategy. Expressing its helplessness over the situation, the top court lamented that when the courts intervene, the judges are attacked for...

-The Hindu Punjab needs a sober, well-thought-out strategy to deal with drug abuse During the campaign for the Punjab Assembly elections last year, Amarinder Singh, then the Congress’s chief ministerial candidate, had pledged to eradicate the State’s drug problem within four weeks of coming to Power. Given the complexity of the issue, hardly anyone took his pledge seriously but it did convey his concern. After coming to Power, Capt. Singh took little...

-PTI Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said he has approved the doorstep delivery of rations, overruling "all objections" to the proposal, two days after the Supreme Court verdict that clipped the Powers of the lieutenant governor. The chief minister also directed the food department to immediately implement the plan. Lt Governor Anil Baijal had objected to the Delhi government's ambitious proposal of doorstep delivery of rations and asked the AAP dispensation to...