-Livemint.com MGNREGS has to cover significant ground to evolve as an effective demand driven asset creating public work programme Union finance minister Arun Jaitley’s claim that he was making the highest ever allocation to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in this year’s budge made headlines. Here are five questions which can help understand why MGNREGS related discussion needs to go beyond talks of budgetary allocation. * Is 2017-18 record allocation for...

-Livemint.com Rural ministry wants same parameters of rate change in MGNREGS as state wages New Delhi: The rural development ministry has put on hold a recommendation by a high-level panel constituted by the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government for parity between the wages paid under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and the minimum wages set by different state governments. Rural development secretary Amarjeet Sinha on Wednesday said the...

-Delhi Solidarity Group Following the ritual, Government of India presented its budget with much fanfare, claiming it to be pro-poor, but the larger question that looms is whether it will really change the lives of the marginalized sections of the society. For a country like India which is ‘democratic, socialist, sovereign, republic’ working towards the ‘welfare’ of its citizens, one, either out of innocence or honest belief, tend to assume that...

-Scroll.in The falling viability of sugarcane in the fertile Upper Doab is a portent to the tough times India’s farm sector could see in the future. In Mundet Kalan, as dusk sets in, villagers get together for some chatter, passing around a large wooden hookah. The village, located in Shamli district of western Uttar Pradesh, is dominated by land-owning Jats – who are angry at almost everything around them. “Jaton ke saath bahot...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre today proposed its highest ever budget allocation for the rural job guarantee scheme but critics rued that the increase was just Rs 500 crore over the revised allocation last year. Finance minister Arun Jaitley announced Rs 48,000 crore for projects and payment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, flagging the hike from the Rs 38,500 crore allocated last year (See chart). Social activists, however,...