-The Hindu The employment scheme will work in tandem with the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana to help take up treatment of about 30% more land than feasible with the current scheme size With limited funds to deal with the gargantuan task of restoring degraded land and reversing desertification in the country, the government is now planning to bring convergence between the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and the...

-The Hindu However, the report found, ‘most of the anganwadi centres and schools, had higher than the permissible range of residual chlorine and indicated inappropriate local dosing’ Around 62% of rural households in India had fully functional tap water connections within their premises, according to a survey commissioned by the Union Ministry of Water Resources to assess the functioning of the government’s marquee Jal Jeevan Mission. In June, the Centre had reported...

-Hindustan Times The House panel also made a “strong appeal” to authorities to change the index that decides wage revision for better wages under the programme. New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel has recommended extension of work allocation under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), India’s flagship job scheme, to 150 days per year, according to a committee report. The MGNREGS currently guarantees 100 days of wage employment to each person in...

-Livemint.com Tackle deficiencies of capital mobilization, access to state provisions and women’s participation to boost FPCs across India. In 2017, the Indian government reaffirmed its commitment to reduce rural distress among nearly 93 million farming households through efforts to double farmers’ income. What has been remarkable is the emergence of farmer producer companies (FPCs) as a viable way of supporting this approach. The last two years have been tumultuous. Pro-market legislation introduced in...

Contrary to the rising economic distress on the ground since the last few years, the official press release related to the fourth Annual Report on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) at first glance seems to give a rosy picture about the employment situation in India.  Defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force, the unemployment rate in usual status (principal activity status + subsidiary economic activity status)...