-The Indian Express NREGA is a demand-driven programme and if the demand vanishes because wages are low and uncertain, nothing will be able to save it. The National rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is going through a deep crisis of delayed and failed wage payments. The problem is not new, but it is more serious than ever and threatens to undermine the entire programme. The crisis has at least four manifestations: Delayed payments,...

-The Hindu On India being labelled the most unsafe country in the world for women Is India merely dangerous for women or is it the most dangerous place for women? Is measuring that on the basis of people’s perception of danger and fear any less significant than on the basis of recorded statistics? In light of India’s labelling as the ‘world’s most dangerous country for women’ in a recent global poll conducted by...

-Livemint.com rural workers’ real wage rate growth was very high in 2014, but has fallen dramatically since then rural wage growth for men for both agricultural and non-agricultural occupations (simple average) was 3.53% in March from a year ago. But consumer price inflation for rural India was 4.44% in March. That means the real rural wage growth, or wage growth after taking inflation into account, was negative during the month. In other...

-Livemint.com The best way to double the real incomes of Indian farmers would be to halve their numbers through job creation in other parts of the economy The Narendra Modi government last week announced sharp increases in minimum support prices (MSPs) for a variety of farm products. The move itself is not unexpected. The first sign that the Modi government would shift away from its earlier strategy of minimal hikes to douse...

-TheWire.in It will greatly bring down the poverty reduction impact of the programme, harm the construction of much-needed rural infrastructure and dramatically diminish the labourers’ bargaining power vis-à-vis the farmers. At the recent fourth governing council meeting of the NITI Aayog, the government announced the formation of a sub-group of chief ministers to propose ways of linking the Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with agricultural activities. The group is headed...