-The Hindu Programme Officer in every State should help workers get UIDAI numbers, says Ministry The Ministry of Rural Development on Tuesday directed the States not to deny workers job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for non-possession of either bank/post office account numbers or the Aadhaar card. The instructions, a copy of which is available with The Hindu, say it is the responsibility of the MGNREGA Programme Officer...

-The Hindu Following the Supreme Court asking the government to clarify the structure of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to ascertain the legal validity of the agreements UIDAI had entered into with States, the next hearing is slated for Tuesday. Jean Dreze, eminent economist, had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court taking up the matter related to the denial of NREGA wages in Jharkhand as a few labourers do...

-Live Mint Rural livelihoods have improved because of MGNREGA. It is wrong to say the scheme has not worked If some recent news articles are to be believed, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a scheme that costs less than 0.35% of India's gross domestic product (GDP), has crashed the country's economy. The latest to join this bandwagon of criticism is an editorial in Mint. ("MGNREGA: A tale...

-The Times of India As India heads towards a bruising general election, one of the key issues in the minds of both people and political parties is jobs. Big parties and their star campaigners can already be heard harping on the theme. The reason is that the jobs scenario has been decidedly grim for more than a decade. Between 2000 and 2012, jobs have increased at an abysmal rate of just 2.2%...

-Live Mint The scheme represents Rs.2.3 trillion spent on wasteful rural consumption This week marked the eighth anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's key rural intervention, launched in 200 districts initially in February 2006. To the extent that such populist schemes helped raise wages without raising productivity. They have contributed more to inflation than to rural wealth. Worse, such schemes have...