-ANI     The move will benefit about eight lakh people in the states like Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Ministry of Rural Development has issued a directive to provide 150 days of wage employment under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for Scheduled Tribe households living in forest areas. The move will benefit about eight lakh people in the states like Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The additional 50 days of...

-Deccan Herald In the past seven years around 3.2 crore farmers have abandoned farming and taken up menial jobs in the cities. At a time when change is the buzzword on the political landscape, when cities are changing, and the villages are no longer what they used to be; when incomes are rising for an educated few, and when the bottom of the pyramid - those below the poverty line -- are...

A new report on India's housing sector confirms with facts and figures what has been suspected all along: that despite growing demand for affordable housing, supply side responses have been weak and sluggish. This means even though the housing sector can directly impact employment and income generation, and has multiple forward and backward linkages with various industries, it needs innovative ideas, pro-poor thinking and policy stimulus. (See link below for...

-The Pioneer Hazaribagh (Ranchi): When we go to the field to check the works going on under MGNREGA scheme always some new problems and matters arises before us which never comes through the social audit. It clearly says that MNREGA social audit needs some more good exercises so that all the field problems should come through it, said the Deputy Commissioner Hazaribagh in the social audit cum jan samwad program organized...

-Outlook Lucknow: Taking note of media reports and state-level reviews over the delay in clearance of wages under the rural job scheme, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has written a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav urging him to ensure prompt payments. The letter, dated January 8, states that it has been mentioned in the law that payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) have...