-PTI Govt has received a total of 3,641 complaints, of which 1,769 have been disposed of The government admitted to irregularities in implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and said it has taken steps to rectify them and improve the scheme's delivery. Minister of State for Rural Development Upendra Kushwaha told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the ministry has established a comprehensive system of...

-The Hindu Business Line A new approach to financial inclusion using post offices The Government is making intensive efforts to extend access to financial resources such as savings accounts, credit and insurance services to unbanked sections of our society, and the knowledge and freedom to leverage them to one's benefit. The Budget has already mentioned that the Government considers financial inclusion as an important thrust area and the Prime Minister is expected...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The emphasis on use of digital technologies to bridge the "rural-urban gap" in the union budget is limited to high talk and minimal allocations. The need for a more comprehensive and peoples' participation-oriented rural action plan should have been the focus while setting sectoral allocations, but that is not to be in this mid-year budget. Vipul Mudgal (vipulmudgal@gmail.com) heads the Inclusive Media for Change project at the Centre...

-The Tribune The UPA's flagship programme MGNREGS changed the employment scene for the rural poor. While 100-day job guarantee was a novel step, loopholes and poor implementation rendered it a liability. The Modi govt hopes to gradually reinvent the scheme, if not entirely scrap it. Midway through the Congress-led UPA's second tenure - believed to be largely the courtesy of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) -...

-The Business Standard The Punjab experience suggests rising agricultural productivity doesn't automatically translate into better jobs,but the story doesn't end there. A recent paper on the post-Green revolution economic transition of Punjab's peasantry, published by Punjab Agricultural University professors Sukhpal Singh and Shruti Bhogal, suggests that increasing productivity of rural workers is only one part of the agriculture to manufacturing transition. Punjab has the most mechanized agricultural sector in the country,...