A thinking government, regional or central, would ensure sustainable wages for skilled artisans and help them market the handcrafted products, instead of letting them join the NREGS queue. The design and execution of the much-touted National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) are likely to leave a lasting impact on some areas of our economy. Surely, the prototype version did not foresee that it would act as a catalyst for changes that...
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In India's grain bowl, farms face threat from MNREGS
-Reuters Sitting at the edge of fields in the heart of India's grain bowl, Gurdayal Singh Malik shakes his head in resignation about the lack of workers needed for his 60-acre farm, blaming the government's flagship welfare program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), for the shortage. Ever since the start of the program, which guarantees 100 days of work a year for rural households, the flow of...
More »A Sezpool Of Factors by Smruti Koppikar
Roadblocks Ahead * The MIDC has been winding up its plans to set up SEZs * As many as 28 SEZ proposals, in the government and private sector, were withdrawn or projects denotified in the last six months * Farmer protests, land acquisition problems, economic downturn and non-feasible tax regimes are cited as reasons for developers backing out. CM Prithviraj Chavan too exercises great caution. *** Mandated to create industrial opportunities in...
More »Cash cure for leaky PDS by Anirban Bhaumik
The Government proposal to make cash transfer in place of food grain to poor families has drawn mixed reactions. Raghuvir Nagar on the western outskirts of Delhi has of late turned into a turf for a war between two schools of thought. The war has not been limited to campaigns and debates and purportedly escalated to the level of allegations, even intimidation, so much so that the Government of the national...
More »Mamata Banerjee re-acquires some land leased out to Tatas in Singur
-The Economic Times The West Bengal government on Thursday promulgated an Ordinance to re-acquire 400 acres of the 997-acre Singur property that was leased out to the Tatas in March 2007 for the Nano project . The ordinance has been signed by governor MK Narayanan. The ordinance presumably kills two birds with a stone. It will enable chief minister Mamata Banerjee to keep a nearly three-year-old promise she had made to Singur's...
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