West Bengal is likely to simplify restrictive laws on land ownership, making it easier for industrial estates to sell surplus land. The state’s land ceiling laws cap private ownership of land at 24 acres, and there were restrictions on transfer of land held under exemption from the threshold. The new policy, which is expected to be ratified by the state cabinet on Friday, would allow companies to transfer even leasehold land given...

  MGNREGA, which entitles millions of workers enrolled under it to at least Rs 100 a day for 100 days of work in a year, is undergoing an overhaul based on a set of recommendations of a committee headed by the Planning Commission member Mihir Shah.   Encapsulated in The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 - Operational Guidelines 2012 in what is being called “MGNREGA 2.0”, the recommendations aim for...

While welcoming the report of the High Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage for India for its comprehensive vision and many well-conceived recommendations, this article focuses on the conditions needed for its promise to bear fruit. Towards this, it explores the political dimension, which comprises the forces and interests that come into play to shape and reconfigure administrative policy and its implementation.   We are grateful to Anand Zachariah and Susie...

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is likely to run into a debate on public health policy after the Planning Commission moved to nix a proposal to include healthcare in the list of public entitlements such as education and food. Central to the proposal—initiated by a high-level expert group (HLEG) headed by K. Srinath Reddy, a leading advocate of preventive cardiology and president of the Public Health Foundation of India—was the...

-The Economic Times   An expert group has recommended adding 30 agricultural and allied works under the Centre's flagship rural job guarantee scheme, in a revamp aimed at making the country's costliest social sector programme more effective.  As part of the overhaul of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the panel has also suggested an electronic fund management system to ensure timely transfer of money to needy districts.  The recommendations of...