-The Hindustan Times   The national rural employment guarantee in a new format will have more funds for asset creation, penalty for late disbursal of funds by the Centre and removing the five-km restriction for seeking work. Working on inputs from state governments, the Centre would be revamping the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) with an aim to create productive assets. Government officials said that some of the likely changes...

-Himal South Asian   Agroecology as an alternative to India's failed agrarian system. Last September, inflation, as indicated by the wholesale price index, rose to a seven-month high of 6.46 percent. Food inflation was at 18.4 percent, and was led by skyrocketing onion prices, which increased by a whopping 323 percent. While the Union Minister for Agriculture, Sharad Pawar, ascribed the phenomenon to nothing more than a seasonal shortage, practices such as...

-Live Mint   Despite its importance, reform of India's legal institutions has been seen as a ‘second order' issue India is a young nation long ruled by old laws-its police, for example, are governed by such colonial-era statutes as the Police Act of 1861, which predates independence by nearly a century. And its expanding economy requires forward-looking regulatory mechanisms to foster markets while curbing crony capitalism. India is also a nation that must...

-Al Jazeera   Activists and feminists seek implementation of law to check violence against women as new government is sworn in. New Delhi - Two days after Narendra Modi emerged victorious in India's national elections, Kiran battled the heat and crowd to see the man she had voted for in the ancient city of Varanasi. Modi, a leader of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, who took oath as the prime minister of India on...

-The New Indian Express   NEW DELHI: The good times may be over for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in ‘mysterious' sectors like participatory democracy, advocacy, action research, innovative communication, inclusiveness etc. Sources said Foreigners Division under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), is tightening the noose around such NGOs and a wide ranging reform is on the top of its agenda. "Activities of NGOs organising workshops on the regulatory frameworks, developing communication strategies, people...