-The Indian Express In her letter to Gadkari, Raje said that some issues in the Act need a rethink. Reopening the debate over the UPA's flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has asked the Centre why it cannot be delivered as a scheme. "It is a moot issue why rural employment should be guaranteed by an Act, and why such employment cannot be delivered, or...

-Down to Earth UPA gives sops under MGNREGS to attract rural voters ahead of elections WITH most of its recent schemes struggling, a desperate UPA government is pinning its hopes on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to win votes in 2014 elections. The government is overhauling the employment scheme that helped it return to power in 2009 for a reason. It touches the lives of over 55 per cent...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The seventh AIIMS-like institute will come up at Rae Bareilly - Congress president Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency - soon. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad announced this on Thursday while addressing the convocation ceremony at AIIMS, Delhi. Azad said that land for the new AIIMS project has been acquired already. "We have acquired land for building AIIMS in Rae Bareilley and tendering process for construction is...

-The Times of India Amid talk of stimulating growth with sops to industry, the Centre has chided the private sector for performing abysmally on making the workforce inclusive by boosting dalit presence in its ranks. The industry in 2006 promised voluntary affirmative action to persuade the UPA-1 government to drop plans to enforce reservation in private sector through a legislation. Reviewing the updated results of affirmative action provided by the industry, Union social...

-The Economic Times A new book by Bibek Debroy on Gujarat looks at how this much-talked about state has performed in economic terms. The author argues history, luck and administrative clarity have been the determining factors. There has been a discernible pickup in Gujarat's growth performance since the 10th Plan (2002-07), the five-year Plans being natural periods for breaking up the timeline. It's tempting to argue that there is nothing exceptional in...