-Live Mint Rural livelihoods have improved because of MGNREGA. It is wrong to say the scheme has not worked If some recent news articles are to be believed, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a scheme that costs less than 0.35% of India's gross domestic product (GDP), has crashed the country's economy. The latest to join this bandwagon of criticism is an editorial in Mint. ("MGNREGA: A tale...

-Tehelka Away from the politics of food security, a small initiative in Assam is changing the way young people look at agriculture. Pubali Saikia, 13, plucks fresh ripe tomatoes, as her classmate Sunti Saikia, 14, arranges beanstalks. The two teenagers are excited; it is, after all, the first produce of their life. Of late, the Titabor sub-division in upper Assam's Jorhat district has been witnessing a silent awakening of sorts. And...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The US Chamber of Commerce has advised its government to ratchet up pressure on India over intellectual property rights and prevent it from producing cheap generic versions of medicines under patent protection. In a recommendation to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the chamber requested it to label India as a Priority Foreign Country, a tag which is given to the worst offenders of patent rights. The only...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Months after ordering that Aadhaar cards based on unique identification number could not be linked to social welfare schemes to deprive its benefits to those without the cards, the Supreme Court on Tuesday looked at the flip-side and said it could be a useful tool to identify illegal migrants. Examining the benefits of Aadhaar cards from a national security aspect, a bench of Justices B S...

-The Business Standard Interview with Director General, Independent Evaluation Office, Planning Commission The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) was created at the Planning Commission in August 2013 to monitor the outcome and effectiveness of various social sector initiatives taken by the UPA government. It began with an evaluation of the Public Distribution System (PDS). Ajay Chhibber, Director General of the IEO, a former assistant secretary general of the UN Development Programme, tells Sanjeeb...