-The Hindu Business Line A flexible approach to collateral will improve access to bank funding. Red tapism too is a perennial concern If the Make in India campaign has to be successful and help many in our country, we need to focus on enabling small units to function and contribute. A major problem small and medium units face is that of finance. Banks and financial institutions are always very wary of assisting them...

-The Guardian After a decade of success, the landmark scheme is being starved of money by a central government seemingly intent on reining in rural wage growth Ten years ago this week, the Indian parliament unanimously passed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). It was a historic legislation based on two interlinked goals: ensuring livelihood security to rural residents by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment...

-The Indian Express In yet another indication of the dismal performance of the scheme this financial year, less than 3 per cent households were able to complete the promised 100 days of employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) this year, effectively meaning that 97 per cent of the beneficiaries have not been able to use the scheme to its maximum intended capacity. Introduced in February 2006, MGNREGA...

-IANS Civil society activists as well as economists Monday decried the "budget cuts" being made by the government for the rural employment guarantee act. The government seems to have decided to ignore its legal responsibility and is using budget cuts to rapidly dilute and undermine the rural employment act, the activists said at a press conference here. Economist Jayati Ghosh said that MGNREGA funding has not been keeping to its demand based requirements...

-The Tribune Faridkot: The Ministry of Rural Development has communicated to the state that no funds would be released under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme till it fully utilised the first installment With two months left for the financial year to end, none of the 146 blocks in Punjab have fully utilised the MGNREGA funds. Until there is full utilisation of the first installment, which is 60...