-PTI States have failed to spend Rs 29,760 crore under various flagship programmes during the last fiscal, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said today. He said during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha that Rs 10,993 crore remained unspent under Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and Rs 5,859 crore under Indira Aawas Yojana (IAY). Funds to the tune of Rs 8,919 crore could also not be utilised under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak...

-The Hindu The intention behind the move to make the CAG a multimember body is not to activate the Shunglu Committee’s report but a desire to clip the auditor’s wings During the last few days there have been many comments on the report that the government of India was considering a proposal to make the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) a multimember body. The move has been widely seen as...

-The Hindu The wretched outcome of the 2G spectrum auctions, netting just Rs.9,407.64 crore against a Rs.40,000 crore revenue target, has evoked predictable reactions from the Congress party. Its leaders have indirectly mocked the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Supreme Court and the media for tying the government’s hands — instead of expressing concern about the impact of the failed auctions on investor confidence and India’s worrying fiscal deficit. Their gloating...

-The Hindu Kerala’s Kudumbashree network and the rural employment guarantee scheme have converged to provide a unique model of empowerment An incredible story of empowerment has been unfolding in the wake of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) programme in the State of Kerala. This is the story of how a socially engineered convergence of the scheme with panchayati raj institutions and the State sponsored community network of poor...

-The Times of India The mystery of the missing detail in official files on why some coal block applicants won while others lost out is proving to be the biggest hurdle in the Centre's bid to ward off the threat of the Supreme Court scrapping all allocations. Aware that an unfavourable verdict on Coalgate will be a body blow to its bid to push-start the economy, the government is planning a careful...