In 2-3 years after implementation, money generation was seen Melaneelithanallur village in Tirunelveli district is bone dry most of the year. Lack of water for crops over the years turned the soil into dry wastelands, considered unfit for use. “Until a few years ago, almost all the farmers in the region wallowed in debt and poverty. Many households lacked even proper metal utensils for cooking as the inhabitants used to pawn...

About 80,000 youths from Below Poverty Line families are to be imparted job-oriented skill training under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, though the programme is yet to be launched formally. The Union Ministry of Rural Development has approved 14 projects for skill training leading to placement in urban settings, at an estimated cost of Rs. 165 crore, to be executed through private-public partnership mode. The Centre will contribute 75 per cent of...

Some members of the National Advisory Council , or NAC, are of the view that a small group in the council is driving its agenda to an extreme, making its recommendations vulnerable to government's rejection on the grounds of fiscal prudence. This not only ends wasting everyone's time, but also does a disservice to the poor and disadvantaged the council seeks to help, by indefinitely delaying progressive legislation, goes the...

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act — or MGNREGA as it is commonly known — has completed five years. Since its inception, I remember how joyous I was while becoming part of the process of its being passed in the Lok Sabha. In fact, we were restless for the delay in the presenting of the standing committee's report. I felt it took too long a time in deliberating...

Since Cairo took to the streets, there is one question that comes up repeatedly in India. How have we been saved from such anarchy, in spite of our faltering democracy? True, Egypt's growth, between 5% and 7%, has been less spectacular than ours. But its per capita income swelled from $587 in 1981 to $1461 in 2001. Even its deficit as a percentage of GDP has fallen from 10.2% in...