The government's biggest welfare programme could see an almost 60 per cent increase in funding. The forthcoming Budget is likely to make a provision of Rs 64,000 crore (Rs 640 billion) for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in 2011-12, against Rs 40,100 crore (Rs 401 billion) in the current fiscal. The huge increase in outlay will be mainly on account of two factors: Linking wages under the scheme with...

The government’s biggest welfare programme could see an almost 60 per cent increase in funding. The forthcoming Budget is likely to make a provision of Rs 64,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in 2011-12, against Rs 40,100 crore in the current fiscal. The huge increase in outlay will be mainly on account of two factors: Linking wages under the scheme with the consumer price...

Women in rural India continue to die because of indifference and neglect by healthcare authorities... This is a public health warning. Do not express concern for the state of healthcare in this country. Do not express anger that women die because they are either denied care or help is delayed when they have complicated pregnancies. Do not demand that healthcare is an entitlement that the poor have a right to demand...

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has decided to stick to its recommendations on the Food Security Act which have been turned down by a committee headed by PM's chief economic adviser C Rangarajan. The NAC has released the version of the Bill it has drafted to explain that its recommendations on the size of population to be covered by the Food Security Act were feasible. The Rangarajan committee has cited food...

The Department of Personnel and Training has rejected most of the changes suggested in the government's Draft Rules for the Right to Information Act by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC, therefore, decided on Friday to have a face-to-face consultation with the DoPT before finalising its recommendations on the subject. The NAC had specifically objected to two proposed changes– abating of the proceedings before the Information Commission if...