-The Telegraph The inadequate sanctioning of schemes across gram panchayats hinders operations, thereby reducing employment opportunities The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act tracker released by the People’s Action for Employment Guarantee as well as a research report presented by LibTech India reveal why the rural job programme has not been able to cater to the needs of the poorest during this steep rural job crisis. Earlier, a survey by the Azim...

-The Hindu In the farm laws debate, the focus should be on the exchequer-farm subsidies issue and the spending on farm subsidies In the on-going debates around the three new pieces of agricultural legislation and the farmers’ demand for continuation of minimum support prices (MSP), questions have often been raised whether the government should be using the taxpayers’ money to provide subsidies to the farming community in this country. However, logically, two...

-The Hindu Jaipur: The Congress government in Rajasthan has initiated action to bring the concurrent social audits of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act’s (MGNREGA) Works at village panchayats in line with the annual village plans. A target has been set to complete the exercise by January 26. Chief Secretary Niranjan Arya said here on Wednesday that socially excluded groups would be included in the planning process, with the emphasis...

-Newsclick.in Unemployment has inched up to over 9% as the year ends and the so-called economic recovery is a mirage. For Indians, 2020 will go down in history as the worst year for livelihoods and incomes. Unemployment levels rose to record highs, incomes plummeted to record lows and such was the scale of deprivation that thousands of families teetered on the brink of starvation. Tragically, this was not just the pandemic. It...

-TheWire.in Researchers have found that small and marginal farmers and Dalit landless labourers are worst affected by the region's agrarian distress. Sangrur/Patiala (Punjab): In the villages of Punjab, strike a conversation on farming  expenses with anyone, and they will say, “Karja tan hai hi (Of course, we have taken loans).” It’s these loans – from both institutional and non-institutional sources – that largely help the rural economy run in the state. But...