Once noted for exemplary implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), skeletons are fast tumbling out of Rajasthan’s cupboard with regard to the flagship programme of the UPA government. In the past few years, four districts — Tonk, Dungarpur, Dausa and Hanumangarh — purchased desktops and laptops worth Rs 3.83 crore using the NREGA fund. It is another question whether the villagers who were supposed to get...

The Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, JeeVika, a state-led women’s self-help group, is active since 2007. Based on primary research, this article highlights the potential role of the individual rural woman – the didi – in driving the social and economic shifts necessary for sustainable poverty reduction in rural Bihar. The term didi is used to address an elder sister. It embodies the notion of respect. Traditionally, the term has remained...

Insurance regulator IRDA has imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh each on two life insurers, state-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and HDFC Life Insurance, for failing to meet rural and social sector obligation in 2008-09, Parliament was informed. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has imposed a fine on LIC and HDFC Standard Life Insurance for non-compliance under the rural sector target during 2008-09, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee...

Suffering from extreme poverty and male oppression, the women of Darkali village in Madhya Pradesh, India, are now able to feed their families through employment under the MGNREGS. The wages obtained under the Scheme help them augment the family resource base. Jashmabai is working under the punishing sun on an earthen dam in her village of Darkali, in Madhya Pradesh's Alirajpur district, being built under the government-funded Mahatma Gandhi National Rural...

Interdependence and knowledge-sharing are keys to global food security, and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is the only legally binding treaty that promotes this, according to Xuan Li, Treaty Support Officer. Speaking to TheHindu on Monday, Ms. Xuan Li said 125 countries were signatories to the treaty that allowed access to the developments to individuals and corporations. The treaty provided access and benefit-sharing to 64 important...