-The Asian Age Is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) a “living monument” of the failure of the economic policies of the Indian National Congress which has ruled the country for all but roughly 14 years since August 1947? Or is it that the MGNREGA, a law enacted a decade ago which seeks to implement the world’s biggest and most ambitious job creating scheme, one of the few...

-The Hindu The health sector typifies the hands-off policy of the government in areas that impact welfare and livelihoods. An air of anticipation and optimism greeted the formation and installation of the new government in 2014. A widely held view was that it would be much more decisive than the previous dispensation in providing some direction to public policy. Twenty months have passed and the initial sense of optimism has been replaced...

-The Times of India New Delhi: MGNREGA, the rural job guarantee scheme that completes 10 years on Tuesday, is set to touch off a fresh battle of political messaging, with the Modi government deciding to consecrate the scheme as a government priority and Rahul Gandhi travelling to a remote Andhra hamlet to celebrate it as a Congress programme. The competition between BJP and Congress for ownership of the programme marks a rare...

-Economic and Political Weekly Health and nutrition indicators have improved, but remain unacceptably low. After a hiatus of a decade, we now have up-to-date information on the health and nutrition status of the population. Preliminary results for 13 states and two union territories of the much awaited National Family Health Survey–4 (NFHS–4) which was conducted in 2015–16—the first after NFHS–3 of 2005–06—have just been released. In a welcome development, NFHS–4, for the...

-TheWire.in The government is gearing up to prepare the Union Budget 2016-17. The Ministry of Finance is holding pre-budget consultations with various groups for their inputs to make it inclusive and progressive. The Finance Minister, in his opening remarks during the pre-budget meetings with the social sector mentioned that “Inclusive growth is high on the priorities of the present government and the government will take adequate measures to ensure social security...