-Livemint.com The money from the Union govt will be routed through the state employment guarantee fund window to the workers accounts New Delhi: In a bid to eliminate delays and corruption in the payment of wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Union cabinet on Wednesday approved the direct release of wages from the Centre to the workers. Workers will be assured of timely payment...
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A subsidy and some questions
-The Hindu The Central government’s decision this week to extend the interest subvention scheme on bank loans given to land-owning farmers at 7 per cent is essentially a welcome move. This is especially so in a context where there is no real clarity on how the current monsoon will turn out to be, running at a deficit of 7 per cent as it does currently. With an additional subvention component of...
More »Limits of the SECC Data
-Economic and Political Weekly This is not "big data" to be used to cut down welfare expenditure. It was the Ministry of Rural Development which, for close to five years beginning in 2010, designed, planned and oversaw the execution of the 2011 Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), whose first batch of results were released earlier this month. Yet, it was somewhat unusual to see Union Minister for Finance, Arun Jaitley, rather...
More »Cash transfers gain globally -Roshan Kishore
-Livemint.com World Bank study says giving cash is a more efficient way to ensure social security Last week the government’s chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian described the direct benefit transfer scheme as a “game changer”. The Pahal scheme, under which cooking gas consumers receive subsidy in their bank accounts, is one of the ways the government is trying to improve the efficiency of its welfare programmes using the so-called the JAM...
More »Social Safety nets require more public funding
The nation can be proud of running some of the world's largest programmes on social safety nets, says the latest report by World Bank. However, public spending on safety nets is still low in comparison to neighbouring countries Bangladesh and Pakistan. India tops the list of 136 countries for running the world's largest school feeding programme i.e. the Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS), and also the biggest public works programme i.e....
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