Protesting social activists at Jantar Mantar (Delhi), who are fighting for better working conditions of MGNREGA workers, have recently shot off two demand letters – one addressed to the Finance Minister of India and the other to the Secretary of Department of Rural Development at the MoRD. The letter addressed to the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley, dated 13 September, 2017, has been signed by eminent activists including Nikhil Dey,...

-The Hindu Business Line Concerns flagged over delay in wages, absence of grievance redressal New Delhi: Citing cases of Aadhaar linkage with wrong accounts, delayed and inadequate wages, especially to thousands of women, preparation of muster rolls in English and centralisation of the programme, workers and organisations from across the country are on dharna in Delhi to reaffirm their “legal entitlements’ under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). “Even based...

-TheWire.in According to NGO Common Cause, Modi missed an opportunity to to set a high benchmark to fight systemic corruption by not putting in place an accountable system to appoint the new Comptroller and Auditor General. An NGO that played a critical role in transforming the way natural resources are allocated by filing PILs in the coal block allocations and 2G spectrum allocation cases, has criticised the Narendra Modi government for following...

-Livemint.com Thomas Piketty’s estimates of inequality in India appear exaggerated on close scrutiny but the issue he raises is an important one Three years after writing a best-selling book on the growing problem of inequality in the Western world, the French economist Thomas Piketty has turned his attention to inequality in the developing world. In a recent research paper co-authored with Lucas Chancel of the Paris School of Economics, Piketty estimates that...

-Livemint.com Average profit margin of farmers on all pulse varieties except gram (chickpeas) fell by 30% in 2016-17 year-on-year due to a record harvest and adverse government policies, said the CRISIL report New Delhi: The profitability of poor farmers in India who are dependent on rain-fed irrigation and grow pulses fell sharply during 2016-17 due to a record harvest and adverse government policies, said a report released on Monday. Average profit margin of...