New rural development minister Jairam Ramesh is working to overhaul the United Progressive Alliance's six-year old flagship rural jobs programme to rid it of all 'manmade' flaws and make the job entitlement more demand driven. The Mahatma GandhiNational Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNERGA), which costs the government Rs 40,000 crore a year - the largest spend on any social welfare scheme - played a key role in catapulting theUPA government...

Rural Bihar's mind is on the state's urbanscape that encompasses 139 statutory towns and 60 census or non-statutory towns. As a result, the state's rural population has decreased over the last one decade, resulting in a rise of the urban population. The Provisional Population Totals pertaining to the 2011 census, which were released on Friday, show that a significant segment of the state's rural population has not only been migrating...

The proposed land acquisition bill unveiled by the Centre today will not override provisions of two landmark laws that seek to protect the interests of tribal landowners, thereby addressing a serious concern of states like Jharkhand where bulk of the land being eyed by industry is in forests inhabited by tribals. On a day the Draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation & Resettlement Bill, 2011, was put in the public domain,...

The UPA government has decided to consult all the Chief Ministers, political parties and other stakeholders after posting on the web the draft land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement Bill by Saturday. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh told journalists he would be sending a copy of the draft legislation to all the Chief Ministers and seek their comments. He will also be conferring with some of them personally. Mr. Ramesh...

-PTI   Holding the Naveen Patnaik government responsible for the delay in the implementation of the proposed POSCO steel project, Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee Tuesday sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention to shift it to barren land near the present site in Jagatsinghpur. "I told the Prime Minister about the fertile and multi-crop land at Dhinkia where the state government has identified land for setting up the POSCO project ... I informed...