-Scroll.in Inability of local officials and infrastructure to cope with the complex technologies driving the scheme could be leaving lakhs of workers unpaid. This year’s Economic Survey lists several “improvements” in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act brought about since 2014-’15. Mostly, these “improvements” are technological initiatives – greater convergence with other programmes, “geo-tagging” of MNREGA assets. They have not made a difference on two of the stated purposes – timely...

For those who asked why the farmers of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states hit the streets during June and July this year, the report prepared by the Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income could be a ready reckoner. Prepared under the chairpersonship of Ashok Dalwai, the report on Doubling Farmers’ Income after studying the trends in crop income and cost associated with 23 crops, reveals a mixed picture across the...

-Hindustan Times There are at least four million domestic workers in India, mostly women, minors and migrants who belong to the lowest end of the economic spectrum. It is time to implement the ‘Domestic Workers Welfare and Social Security Act, 2010’ Bill. The problem of domestic workers being ill treated is not a new one. The recent case of a minor girl in Noida being accused of stealing; and the counter allegations...

-NDTV Telangana government had coached children from underprivileged backgrounds, who were students of free government schools. Now they will go to IIT and NIT. Hyderabad: Marginal farmers, labourers, orphans, Dalits and tribals - nearly a hundred children from very underprivileged backgrounds have made Telangana proud this year. With special coaching from free government schools, 27 of them have cracked the entrance examination for the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology. The other...

-PTI The court was hearing a PIL alleging that the statutory cess levied from real estate firms for the welfare of construction workers was not being utilised properly. Where has a whopping amount of Rs 20,000 crore, meant for workers’ welfare, gone? Spent on tea parties or vacation of officials? Even the Comptroller and Auditor General doesn’t know, wondered the Supreme Court. These posers were put to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)...