--The Indian Express PMGSY was rolled out in 2000 to provide access to all-weather roads in 1.78 lakh rural habitations across the country. New Delhi: A recent independent World Bank assessment of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) rural roads proGramme meant to establish ‘farm to market connectivity’ shows that the PMGSY roads, in fact, “triggered a shift from farm to non-farm employment” in the habitations studied between 2009 and...

-Down to Earth The employment scheme generated 20.23 average working days in the state against the mandated 100 days, according to a Punjabi University report A high incidence of illiteracy, low levels of education, a major lack of awareness and dependence on Panchayat members and sarpanches have led the much-publicised Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to fail in Punjab. The scheme generated only 20.23 average days' employment a year...

-The Hindu They have not set collection targets The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has pulled up 52 companies — including Amazon, Flipkart, Danone Foods and Beverages and Patanjali Ayurved Limited — for not specifying a timeline or a plan to collect the plastic waste that results from their business activities. The Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, (which was amended in 2018) prescribed by the Union Environment Ministry, says that companies that use...

-The Indian Express One notable thing was the absence of emphasis on doubling farmers’ real incomes by 2022. Perhaps the reality that this is an uphill task has dawned on the government — it may not achieve even half the target. In her first budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reminded us of the famous quote from M K Gandhi, that the “soul of India lives in villages”. She also said...

-The Telegraph Familiar election-time promise of waivers had prompted many not to clear their dues in the hope that the relief would cover them Lucknow: Some 170 Bundelkhand farmers face the threat of auctioning of their properties and possible arrest over unpaid cooperative bank loans, under a rare move by the Uttar Pradesh government that the farmers said would destroy families. Conversations with farmers and officials suggest the familiar election-time promise of waivers...