There are many critics and sceptics with respect to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which came into being because of political pressure that managed to overcome quite strenuous opposition from some of the most influential policy making circles. It is likely that much of this criticism is not really because of the declared reasons, like fiscal costs (which are thus far very little) and potential leakage. Rather,...

IN A small village north-west of Bangalore, peasants queue for identities. Each man fills in a form with his name and rough date of birth, or gets someone who can read to do it for him. He places his fingertips on one scanner and stares at another. A photograph of his face is snapped. These images are uploaded to a computer. Within a few weeks he will have an identity...

The late Rajiv Gandhi famously, or infamously, once claimed that only 15 per cent of the funds allocated to welfare programmes ever reached the intended beneficiaries. The rest leaked enroute, entering the pockets of an assortment of intermediaries. This is a thought that the Union finance minister must always remember, especially when he sits down to allocate funds for an assortment of subsidies and some of the high-profile spending programme...

Nandan Nilekani-led Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP) on Friday submitted its report to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee suggesting systematic change in the way key projects are incubated and executed. The report has mooted the idea of a "mission leader" for every project and a dedicated mission execution team. "Strong support from the top leadership within government, dedicated team at the level of project implementation and ownership and commitment at various...

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the United Progressive Alliance government’s flagship programme, has so far spent just 56 per cent of its Budget allocation of Rs 40,000 crore. It has also recorded a fall in the average number of workdays per household this financial year. Government managers are asking for a 60 per cent rise in allocation for the scheme in the next financial year. Rs 20,854...