-Live Mint   Voters who gave the Congress its worst drubbing did not reject its welfare agenda, but its performance There are many who interpret the emphatic rejection of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the significant endorsement of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Elections of 2014 as a mandate to end the architecture of rights-based legislation for social and economic welfare constructed during the 10-year UPA regime. Commentators opposed...

-Down to Earth   Ministry of panchayati raj plans to develop model panchayats in different states through integrated development President Pranab Mukherjee's address to parliamentarians on Monday and the brain-storming sessions carried out by the new prime minister, Narendra Modi, with officials of different ministries indicate changes in the way rural development schemes will be implemented in the country. Each department in the rural development ministry has organised workshops with states to evolve the...

-The Hindu Business Line     A government run by a bevy of economists with no sense of the ground reality made mistakes. Some really big ones As the new government settles down to tackle the myriad problems confronting it, it's worth taking a quick glance at the principal reasons for the spectacular unravelling of the UPA-2 government. A defining characteristic of UPA-2 was that it was led by an economist and supported by prominent...

-The Business Standard   Say waiver will vitiate the loan recovery environment Bankers have requested the Union finance ministry to convince the Andhra Pradesh government to drop its proposed farm loan waiver scheme, at a time when a rise in loans turning bad is eroding the profitability of lenders, especially state-run ones. Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, who is to take the oath of office as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh on Monday,...

-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...