-Livemint.com Despite reeling under a severe monsoon deficit, the region has seen a surprise fall in demand for jobs under MGNREGS New Delhi: Although reeling under a severe monsoon deficit for the second year in a row, the Marathwada region of Maharashtra has seen a surprise fall in demand for jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)—the result, said experts, of years of government neglect, low wages...

-The Hindu BELAGAVI (Karnataka): Following directions from the State government to implement the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to create employment opportunities to the needy in the drought-affected areas of the State, the Zilla Panchayat has launched a special drive to extend the benefit of the scheme to the unskilled workers in the district. Since unemployment in villages is one of the direct impacts of natural calamities such as the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked the central government to increase wages under the national rural job scheme to at least Rs 300 a day to attract workers, a view apparently shared by many states as well as activists. An official in the rural development ministry said many state governments had already written to the Centre citing difficulties in implementing the MGNREGA because of the low...

-DNA The nationwide one day strike according to the trade unions is supposed to be the biggest strike ever in the country. This protest is a strike against the anti-worker economic policies of the government. 10 central trade unions have declared a nation-wide strike on September 2 which is said to impact essential services. This strike is to protest against the changes that have been made in the labour laws by...

-The Hindu Across the country, unless adequate jobs are created for the large labour force, the frustration of the youth is not likely to be contained. In Gujarat, the Patels or Patidars, who constitute about 15 per cent of the State’s population, are an economically and politically dominant upper caste. As successful farmers, as small and big industrialists, as traders as well as non-resident Gujaratis, spread practically all over the world, they...