-NDTV The "highest ever allocation" to NREGA (which also led to it trending on Twitter)  in the Union Budget has provided a useful opportunity to raise some pressing issues related to the implementation of the scheme. It is natural, and welcome, that the government turn to NREGA to provide much-needed relief to those whose already precarious lives have been disrupted by demonetization, a man-made economic disaster. Widespread reports of job losses...

-TheWire.in   Two supplementary MNREGA allocations were made by the government last year. This means, there’s only a 1%, not 25%, actual increase in this year’s Budget.   New Delhi: The finance minister claimed that this year’s Budget allocations for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) were a new “record”, at Rs 48,000 crore. But is this really a substantial increase? And, more importantly, is it enough? The 2016-17 Budget had...

-Livemint.com On demonetisation’s impact on the agriculture sector, the Economic Survey said higher winter plantings may not necessarily lead to higher production New Delhi: India’s farm sector is entwined in regulation and is a living legacy of the socialist era, the Economic Survey released on Tuesday said, criticizing curbs on marketing of agriculture produce and imposition of stock limits on traders. “While progress has been made in the last two years, producers (farmers)...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's public spending on health is about five times lower than the world average, the Economic Survey released today has said, adding the country lacks good models of health care for replication nationwide. The survey, in a section on social sector expenditure trends, has pointed out that the government's annual expenditure on health was 1.2 per cent of the gross domestic product in 2013-14, 1.1 per cent in...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Economic Survey has recommended that biometric tracking of teachers' attendance be introduced in government primary schools and the data monitored by parents and local communities. The Survey has cited the low-learning outcome of children in government schools and linked it to teacher absenteeism and shortage of professionally qualified teachers. According to the UNESCO- EFA (Education For All) Monitoring Report for 2014, teacher absenteeism in India varies between 15...