As minister for rural development, Jairam Ramesh oversees the largest spending in the social sector by the government. This includes the marquee Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) that was pioneered by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in 2006. The minister, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is known for his forthrightness. In a typically candid interview to Mint on...

-The Deccan Chronicle   As the year 2011 comes to an end, the ministry of rural development is yet to find answers to slippage within the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). However, Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh gave a new approach by unveiling new policies for the Naxal-affected areas. Taking charge of the ministry later in the middle of the year, Mr Ramesh highlighted that the demand for the job...

An inconvenient truth? Or yet another case of shoddy data collection by state agencies? The government is scrambling to prove that it is the latter, after data on the UPA's flagship poverty alleviation programme shows that it may not be reaching its intended beneficiaries, those classified in official-speak as below the poverty line (BPL). A recent note circulated to all state departments by the rural development ministry revealed that only...

-The Deccan Chronicle   In a bid to help villagers find work, especially in drought-hit mandals, the authorities are taking up several works under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Godavari districts. In a bid to help villagers find work, especially in drought-hit mandals, the authorities are taking up several works under the National Rural Employ-ment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Godavari districts. The government has declared 14 mandals in East Godavari and...

The government is likely to allow advance part payment of wages in a bid to restore faith of beneficiaries in its flagship rural jobs scheme. The proposal is part of a slew of measures to address mounting criticism of the centrally-funded Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) which is beset by administrative logjam and charges of leakages.  The rural development ministry has asked states to initiate a monthlong pilot...