-The Indian Express The budget is an opportunity for government to address the simmering discontent and disillusion in rural India. The first advance estimates of GDP growth, at 2011-12 constant prices, put the growth for FY16 at 7.6 per cent over the previous year. This is the highest growth rate in the first four years of the forgotten 12th Five-Year Plan. No wonder this makes the Narendra Modi-led NDA government somewhat...
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For NREGA, Tamil Nadu Is The Only Hope -Reetika Khera
-NDTV NREGA, today celebrating its 10th anniversary, has received a hostile reception from the current political dispensation. The Rajasthan Chief Minister questioning the need for a law, the then Rural Development minister's suggestion to limit NREGA to a few districts, and the Prime Minister's speech in Parliament in 2015 reveal the BJP's hostility and double standards (NREGA was passed unanimously in 2005). Yet, it would be wrong to lay the entire blame...
More »Modi govt's flagship Atal Pension Yojana meets 10 per cent of target -Kumar Vikram
-India Today Concerned over the poor response, the Finance Ministry has asked all state-run banks to extend the date of government contribution till March 31, 2016. The Centre's flagship pension plan, launched with much fanfare last year, is struggling to stay afloat. It has been able to bring only about 10 per cent of the targeted two crore under its ambit. The Atal Pension Yojana (APY), aimed at ensuring pension for those...
More »Aruna rally under attack
-The Telegraph Jaipur: A rally flagged off by social activist Aruna Roy was attacked today in Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje's constituency by suspected BJP activists, led by an MLA. At least six rallyists were injured. An FIR has been filed against the MLA and others. The Aklera police station assistant SHO, Manmohan Bairwa, said: "The FIR has been lodged against the present MLA of Aklera and 30-35 unidentified people.... No arrests have...
More »Flagship scheme MGNREGA: Sustainability of a turnaround - Shalini Nair
-The Indian Express A renewed funding squeeze may undermine MGNREGA’s recent revival, fear civil society activists. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme which guarantees 100 days of wage employment per year to rural households, may have staged a revival in the last two quarters after showing a declining trend in person-days generation during the first year of the Narendra Modi government. But the turnaround could well be temporary,...
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