Being obsessed with Google, a betel shop owner has exposed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scam in Porbandar where most of the laborers mentioned in the list of beneficiaries were affluent NRIs, doctors in real life, who had never been a part of any job scheme. They have been shown as unemployed village labourers holding NREGA job cards, reports Hiral Dave of the Financial Express. The...

The mass migration of farmers moving to urban India is becoming a worrisome trend, said planners at a seminar in the Indian Capital. “Many peasants want to leave agriculture, sell land and migrate to cities,” Arvind Mayaram, Additional Secretary and financial advisor to the Ministry of Rural Development told the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum on Monday. Seventy per cent of India’s 1.1 billion people currently live in villages,...

Now, India is saying what the government already knew. Two-thirds of India (66%) feel government programmes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Bharat Nirman and Rural Health Mission are the best way to ensure that the benefits of India’s steroid-charged growth rates reach those who have been left out of the "India Shining" story. A Hindustan Times-CNN IBN survey conducted by research organisation C fore of 1,621 adults...

For Sonia Gandhi, the change could not have been more dramatic. Just last year, her contribution in pushing for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was hailed as the single largest reason for the fresh mandate received by a government avowedly dedicated to the aam aadmi. Yet, last week, Gandhi, as chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC) was reduced to lodging a complaint with Prime Minister...

Calls for “suitable directions” on paying statutory minimum wages A follow-up to NAC meeting, which felt there should be no deviation from statutory wages Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat Chief Ministers have also made a strong plea for minimum wages Sonia Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging “suitable directions” on paying statutory minimum wages to workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). The November 11 letter is...