-TheWire.in Chitrakoot (UP): In the drought-affected Basiniha village in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot district, the situation is so bad that the villagers survive on a single roti a day. Despite this, Munni Devi was not eager to take up employment at a NREGA work site when an offer was recently made. There is a simple reason for Munni Devi’s reluctance – she has not yet received wages for the nearly 20 days of...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after taking power in the Capital a year ago pledged support for people living in unauthorised colonies and slum clusters, adopting a strong stand against demolition of such structures without proper rehabilitation. But the Arvind Kejriwal-led government has failed to turn around the fortunes of the residents of these bustling neighbourhoods, many of them with no legal electricity or water supply. Analysts say lack...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: Nearly five dozen former parliamentarians owe close to Rs 1 crore as rental charges for overstaying in government accommodation long after leaving office, a Right to Information (RTI) reply has revealed. While former finance minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, one-time India cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin and actress Jaya Pradha are among the defaulters, former Rajya Sabha member Gireesh Kumar tops the list as he owes the...

-Frontline.in An initiative focussed on Kerala’s development experience exposes a worrying trend of rising inequality and proposes a strategy for sustainable and equitable growth. THE fourth international Congress on Kerala Studies, organised by the A.K.G. Centre for Study and Research in Thiruvananthapuram on January 9-10, has generated much interest for its focus on a worrying new trend in Kerala’s development experience: rising inequality and marginalisation of large sections of people despite...

-The Asian Age Is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) a “living monument” of the failure of the economic policies of the Indian National Congress which has ruled the country for all but roughly 14 years since August 1947? Or is it that the MGNREGA, a law enacted a decade ago which seeks to implement the world’s biggest and most ambitious job creating scheme, one of the few...