-The Hindu The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employee Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) has generated more rural employment than any other government scheme or private initiative in the history of independent India. At the same time, it has also generated a great deal of controversy over its merits and demerits. It would be fair to say that the policy establishment in the country right now is not favourably disposed towards the MGNREGA, with the...

-The Telegraph Guwahati: Union minister of chemical and fertilizers Ananth Kumar announced here today that the Centre would set up generic medicine units in at least 100 government hospitals in Assam and supply such medicines at 50 to 60 per cent less than the market price. "We will sign a memorandum of understanding with the state government next week and Rs 2.5 lakh will be spent on construction of each unit in...

-The Hindu The Modi government is determined to dismantle the two-pronged welfare paradigm. It is now an established fact that one area where the Narendra Modi administration has acted with a sense of purpose, urgency and resolve is in slashing social expenditure. Be it education, health, agriculture, livelihood security, food security, panchayati raj institutions, drinking water or the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes sub-plan, central government funds earmarked for social protection have been cut. The...

-The Indian Express Dealing with the farm distress, while simultaneously creating enough non-farm job opportunities, is going to be a tough task. Call it bad luck or otherwise, the Narendra Modi government’s first year in office hasn’t been a really great one for agriculture and rural incomes. To start with, rainfall was deficient in both the south-west (June-September) and the north-east (October-December) monsoon seasons by over 12 per cent and 33 per...

-The New Indian Express KOCHI: Globalisation and its appetite for cheap input have badly affected fisherwomen who are already grossly underpaid when compared to men in the sector or are unpaid, a report of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, published on Tuesday has observed. In the sector, with its still prevalent Old Boys’ Club behaviour, globalisation benefited some people from new emerging work and business opportunities, but...