-Livemint.com The current fiscal year has been hard on rural India, home to nearly 70% of the country's population New Delhi: The current fiscal year has been hard on rural India, home to nearly 70% of the country's population. Growth in rural wages has slowed and spending on the flagship employment guarantee scheme has contracted substantially, that too in a deficit monsoon year; foodgrain output is expected to dip by 3%. Please click...
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Social spending cut: Rural job scheme, SSA in focus -Ruhi Tewari
-The Financial Express As cuts in social sector spending in the forthcoming Union Budget are widely anticipated, the focus will be on two of the biggest flagship schemes - the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, both with individually high budget allocations. MGNREGA, launched by the Congress-led UPA government in 2006, has been in the midst of controversy this year, with the NDA government being accused...
More »India's rural employment programme is dying a death of funding cuts -Jayati Ghosh
-The Guardian After a decade of success, the landmark scheme is being starved of money by a central government seemingly intent on reining in rural wage growth Ten years ago this week, the Indian parliament unanimously passed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). It was a historic legislation based on two interlinked goals: ensuring livelihood security to rural residents by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment...
More »Arun Jaitley hints at more spending cuts ahead of Union Budget
-PTI Having already crossed the fiscal deficit target in November, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday hinted at more cuts in spending so as to contain it within limits for the current fiscal, saying he does not believe in living on borrowed money. "We're trying to rationalise expenditure as far as the government is concerned because we do not want the government to live on borrowed money indefinitely," he told a gathering...
More »More than 70% NREGA wages unpaid this fiscal -Ruhi Tewari
-The Indian Express At a time when the NDA government's moves to prune spending on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and to limit its scope has brought the focus back on the gaps in the scheme's implementation, data with the Ministry of Rural Development show over 70 per cent wages have not been paid on time under the scheme so far this financial year. As per a presentation made...
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