In the month of April this year, there has been an unprecedented upsurge in daily new cases and daily new deaths in the country due to Covid-19. States, which reported large increases in daily new cases and daily new deaths, are Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, to name but a few. Data accessed from https://www.covid19india.org/, which is a crowdsourced platform and an independent aggregator of daily Covid-19 figures and...
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The pandemic has hampered social auditing of MGNREGA
When a massive sum of public money is spent on a programme like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA)--a demand-driven programme, there is likelihood of financial misappropriations and mismanagement. Thankfully there are checks and balances in the rural employment guarantee legislation to counter such malpractices. It is worth noting that the total allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA) for 2020-21 was Rs. 1,11,500.00 crore (R.E.), up...
More »Punjab struggles for essentials amid suspension of goods trains -Kanchan Vasdev
-The Indian Express Thermal plants shut down, leading to power cuts, raw material supply cut off to industry, movement of food grains hit Chandigarh: SUSPENSION OF railway traffic to Punjab since September 24 amid the farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s farm laws has left the state gasping for power, fertilisers and raw material for industry and gunny bags for paddy procurement, besides bringing to a halt the movement of food grains and...
More »In a first, Punjab mandis to store wheat produce post-procurement -Gurpreet Singh Nibber
-Hindustan Times The department officials said the idea of storing wheat on the premises of rice mills could not materialise because they already have an excess paddy stock. Chandigarhh: In the wake of a stalemate with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) over finalisation of storage rates for covered area plinths (storage in open), the Punjab food and civil supplies department has decided to store wheat produce in the state’s grain markets...
More »India needs both price and income support for farmers -Soumya Kanti Ghosh and Debashis Padhi
-Livemint.com The concerns about the downsides of these schemes are overblown, and they could go some way in alleviating rural woes Since the Union Budget 2018-19, there has been a great deal of discussion in the public domain regarding the health of the rural sector. We believe that the rural sector needs some policy intervention, be it price support or income support. As a case in point, the agri gross domestic product...
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