Demand for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) inched up in February to scale an eight-month high, after a month-on-month fall in January, reflecting an uneven recovery in broader economic activities. According to rural development ministry data, 26.3 million individuals opted for work under the scheme in February, up 1.7% from the previous month. Demand for the work came from 21.2 million households, recording a 2.4%...

A swarm of fake cards has rampaged the MGNREGA project or 100 days of work in West Bengal. More than 1 million counterfeit job cards have been caught in West Bengal in the last year, and all of them have been cancelled. The nodal division in charge of the 100-day project under the state’s Panchayat and rural development Department revealed. "The exact statistics of the total number of fake job cards...

In the recent week, the Ministry of rural development (MoRD) has dealt three major, concerted blows to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA):   (1) The Budget allocation for NREGA was reduced to just Rs 60,000 crore in 2023-24 (less than Rs 50,000 crore if we deduct wage arrears from 2022-23). This makes this year’s allocation the lowest as a proportion of GDP (0.2%) in the history of the programme. (2) The...

Economic Times A parliamentary panel has asked the government to increase financial assistance provided under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) to help beneficiaries in completion of houses and improve monitoring of houses being constructed under the flagship scheme. The 30-member committee on estimates, headed by BJP MP Girish Bhalchandra Bapat, asked the ministry of rural development to revise the financial assistance provided to help beneficiaries in timely completion of houses sanctioned. The...

Mint India’s rural borrowers and small businesses owners may have easier access to credit with public sector banks (PSBs) planning to increase financing to these segments, after the Union finance ministry urged lenders to improve their credit-deposit ratio. The C-D ration indicates how much of a banks' deposit base is being utilized for extending loans. The development may help expedite the revival of the rural economy, which is struggling to reach pre-covid...